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CORNELL 

UNIVERSITY 

LIBRARY 


BOUGHT  WITH  THE  INCOME 
OF  THE  SAGE  ENDOWMENT 
FUND     GIVEN     IN     1891     BY 

HENRY  WILLIAMS  SAGE 


•W'T 


t*+*+++4+**++++ ♦+♦♦♦+♦ 

&]c  BiSm 

^tmt^n  @. 

^    (gnc^tt.     ^ 

\^X 

DA  690.C6F71  """"'""''  '■'^""' 


Cinque  Ports  : 


3   1924  028  079  832 


DATE  DUE 


>i  Ttil    1^ 

Ju?J  i'Cr 

CAVLORD 

PRINTED  tNU.S.A 

Cornell  University 
Library 


The  original  of  this  book  is  in 
the  Cornell  University  Library. 

There  are  no  known  copyright  restrictions  in 
the  United  States  on  the  use  of  the  text. 


http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028079832 


THE    CINQUE    PORTS 


"  yaimais  ce  pays  injiintnent.  II  est  des  coins  die  monde  delicieux  qui 
onl  pour  les  yeux  tin  charme  sensuel.  On  les  aime  dim  amour  physique. 
Nous  gardons,  nous  aiitres  que  sMuit  la  terre,  des  soievejiirs  tendres  pour 
certaines  sources,  certains  bois,  certains  dtangs,  certaines  collines,  vus  souvent 
et  qui  nous  ont  attendris  a  la  fa^on  des  evhiements  heureux." — La  Mere 
Sauvage. 


'  Where  Grisnez  winks  at  Dungeness 
Across  the  ruffled  strip  of  salt ^^ 

— G.  Meredith. 


HHVOa 


DOVER 


THE    CINQUE    PORTS 


A    HISTORICAL  AND  DESCRIPTIVE  RECORD 


BY 


FORD    MADOX    HUEFFER 


AUTHOR  OF 


ILLUSTRATED  BY 

WILLIAM     HYDE 


WILLIAM     BLACKWOOD    AND     SONS 

EDINBURGH     AND     LONDON 
MCM 


S 


TO 

ROBERT    SINGLETON     GARNETT. 

MY   DEAR   ROBERT, 

Permit  me  to  dedicate  this  book,  or  so  much  of  it  as  is 
mine,  to  you.  It  is  a  practice  not  unusual  for  a  dedicator  to  assure  a 
dedicatee  that  he — perhaps  more  frequently  she — is  the  fountain  and 
origin  of  the  work  dedicated,  the  head  and  front  of  the  offence.  This 
practice  I  can  to  some  extent,  and  with  a  good  conscience,  follow ;  for 
I  hold  it  certain  that  but  for  your  friendly  and  professional  advice  I 
should  long  since  have  ended,  if  not  on  the  gallows,  at  least  in  a  union 
workhouse,  a  not  vastly  promising  career.  In  the  latter  of  these  pre- 
dicaments the  writing  of  a  book  about  the  Cinque  Ports  would  have  been 
difficult ;  in  the  former,  impossible.      Hence  your  vicarious  responsibility. 

With  regard  to  this  book :  as  you  are  aware,  I  have  lived  within 
the  Liberties  of  one  or  other  of  the  Five  Ports  ever  since  I  can  remember, 
and,  ever  since  I  can  remember,  the  glamour  of  their  name  has  been  upon 
me.  As  a  boy  at  school  in  one  of  the  Corporate  Members  of  the  Port 
of  Dover  I  always  thought  that  the  estate  of  a  Baron  of  the  Ports  was 
the  highest  of  ultimate  human  attainments  ;  I  had  no  wish,  like  my  school- 
mates, to  be  either  a  pirate,  or  a  railway-guard,  or  even  a  baron  of  the 
realm. 

As  perhaps  you  remember,  at  the  very  outset  of  writing  I  confided 
to  you  my  ideas  of  what  the  book  was  to  be  :  neither  archseological  nor 
topographical,  nor  even  archseologico-topographical.  It  was  to  be  a  piece 
of  literature   pure   and   simple,  an   attempt,   by  means    of  suggestion,   to 


vi  DEDICA  TION. 

interpret  to  the  passing  years  the  inward  message"  of  the  Five  Ports. 
You,  you  will  remember,  very  sagely  advised  me  to  limit  myself  to  a 
desire  for  accuracy.  That  seemed  impossible.  But  one  day  I  chanced 
to  read — in  a  journal  well  known  to  us  both — a  review  of  a  work  by  the 
learned  Mr  So-and-so,  a  work  entitled  '  The  History  of  the  Universe.' 
Said  the  Reviewer  :  "  It  is  a  pity  that  a  subject  so  suggestive  should 
have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  writer  so  incompetent  as  the  author.  The 
book  is  brimming  with  inaccuracies.  As  a  sample,  we  may  quote  the 
following  from  page  672  of  vol.  vi.  :  'In  1641  Sir  Phineas  Tregooze 
Phineas  Cupar,  2nd  Baronet,  purchased  the  Kinmure  estates  of  Sir 
Thomas  Polwhedle.'  In  this  one  sentence  that  we  have  chosen  quite  at 
random  ther-e  are  no  less  than  four  unpardonable  errors.  It  was  not 
Sir  P.  T.  P.  Cupar  but  Sir  John  Phineas-Tregooze  Cupar  who  added 
the  kinmure  acres  to  his  own  ;  he  was  not  the  2nd  but  the  3rd  Bart.  ; 
he  made  the  purchase  in  1644,  and,  although  the  negotiations  for  the 
sale  commenced  in  the  lifetime  of  Sir  T.  Polwhedle,  they  were  not 
completed  until  death  had  allowed  the  lands  to  pass  into  the  hands  of 
his  relict.  Blunders  like  these  render  Mr  So-and-so's  work  quite  worth- 
less." This  review  impressed  me.  If  so  minute  a  blunder  can  render 
worthless  a  book  treating  of  a  subject  so  vast,  how  worse  than  worthless, 
how  positively  detrimental,  would  be  my  own  book,  which  aimed  not  at 
accuracy  but  at  suggestiveness !     True,  one  does   not  write  for  a  public 

of  reviewers  in  the  ,  but  one  cherishes  the  sneaking  hope  of  being 

all  things  to  all  men.  I  then  and  there  determined  that  I  would  print 
assertively  no  single  statement  for  which  I  had  not  found  chapter  and 
verse  in  a  chronicle  of  one  kind  or  another — in  the  work  of  a  chronicler 
as  nearly  as  possible  contemporaneous  with  the  event  asserted.  Where 
the  sayings  of  a  man  like  Lambarde  seemed  too  suggestive,  or  a  local 
peasant-legend  (and  these  are  the  things  that  I  value)  too  picturesque  to 
leave  uncited,  I  would  plainly  state  that  the  truth  of  the  statements 
seemed  questionable.     To  these  determinations  I  have  adhered. 


DEDICA  TION.  vii 

It  is  usual  to  excuse  the  appearance  of  a  book  by  referring  to  the 
fewness  or  the  unavailability  of  previous  vi^orks  on  the  subject.  This 
excuse,  I  think,  is  open  to  me.  With  the  exception  of  Mr  Montagu 
Burrows'  '  Cinque  Ports,'  in  Messrs  Longmans'  "  Historic  Towns  Series," 
there  has  appeared  only  one  book  dealing  with  the  Cinque  Ports  as  a 
whole.  This  one,  Jeake's  '  Charters,'  was  written  in  the  seventeenth 
century  and  is  excessively  rare.  Nearly  all  the  monographs  on  separate 
Ports  are  out  of  print. 

With  Mr  Burrows'  'Cinque  Ports'  my  book  is  in  no  way  intended 
to  compete.  His  learned  and  excellent  work  is  a  serious  study  of  a 
medieval  institution  ;  mine  is  something  much  less  and  something  a  little 
more.  In  a  humble  way,  and  backed  up  by  the  opinions  of  Mr 
Round,  I  venture  to  differ  from  Professor  Burrows  in  the  essential 
point  of  the  history  of  Cinque  Ports'  developments.  I  differ  from  him 
much  more  strongly  in  my  views  as  to  the  towns  as  they  at  present 
exist.  Mr  Burrows  can  write  :  "  Winchelsea,  the  delight  of  artists,  is  to 
every  one  else  a  melancholy  wreck"  words  which  afflict  me  with  a  sense 
of  almost  physical  pain.  The  study,  and  more  particularly  the  lessons, 
of  history  have  for  the  world  of  to-day  a  practical  as  well  as  theoretic 
value ;  and  places  which,  like  Winchelsea,  in  their  decay  vivify  history, 
have  a  value  beyond  that  of  many  of  the  thriving  watering-places  that 
Mr  Burrows  upholds.  I  am  far  from  denying  the  worth  of  towns  like 
Folkestone  or  like  Hastings,  towns  that  minister  to  the  physical  well- 
being  of  a  nation  electing  to  spend  its  life  under  the  foul  skies  of  great 
cities.'  With  this  fact  well  in  view  I  have  treated  these  places  as 
seriously  as  I  have  treated  the  Ports  in  their  earlier  stages  of  develop- 
ment. But  of  these  there  is  a  great  many.  There  is  only  one  Winchelsea, 
and  there  is  no  place  like  it,  no  place  that  so  effectually  and  so  pleasantly 
teaches  us  the  lesson  that  we  most  need  in  these  days  of  hurry  and  forget- 
fulness.  Where  else  can  one  so  well  realise  that  there  were  strong  men 
before  Agamemnon;    so  well  learn  that  the  Agamemnons  of  to-day  are 


viii  DEDICA  TION. 

but  the  strong  men  that  will  fall  and  be  forgotten  at  the  rise  of  the 
Agamemnons  of  to-morrow  ?  With  these  ideas  constantly  in  my  mind, 
I  have  attempted  as  carefully  to  trace  the  decline  of  the  Ports  as  to 
declare  how,  again  and  again,  in  the  days  of  their  flourishing  they  saved 
England,  served  England,  suffered  for  England. 

For  the  same  reason  I  have  unstintedly  abused  the  mutilators  of  the 
public  buildings,  sacred  and  secular,  that  remain  within  the  Liberties. 
Nothing,  it  seems  to  me,  is  so  absolutely  essential  to  the  cure  of  certain 
mental  maladies  fostered  by  the  spirit  of  the  age  as  the  sight  of  the  good 
work  they  did  in  the  old  days  before  our  times ;  nothing  so  curative  as 
the  sight  of  the  good  craftsmanship  ;  nothing  so  essential  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  old  faith  as  the  being  for  a  little  time  within  the  walls  that 
that  faith  caused  to  rise.  Yet  within  these  last  few  years  every  one  of 
these  buildings  has  been  bescrubbed  and  transformed  to  suit  the  ideals 
of  the  modern  housemaid.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  distinguish  any 
one  of  them  from  the  products  of  the  years  we  live  in,  years  sad  for  the 
craftsman,  sadder  for  the  artist,  sadder  still  for  the  upholder  of  any  faith 
whatsoever.  There  is  not,  I  think,  within  the  Liberties  of  the  Ports 
one  single  church  that  has  not  been  thus  restored.  It  is  lamentable,  it 
is  pitiful,  to  think  that  a  century  that  some  one  has  bitterly  nicknamed  the 
"wonderful"  should  have  left  nothing  unspoilt  of  so  much  that  humbler 
centuries  had  left  of  the  beautiful,  of  the  reverend ;  to  think  that  we 
must  go  down  to  all  time  —  in  scecula  sceculorum  —  as  a  people  who 
worshipped  in  temples  of  plaster  of  Paris  and  of  pitch-pine  ;  to  think  that 
where  we  found  the  real  thing,  we  inevitably,  inexorably,  replaced  it 
by  a  makeshift,  by  a  cheap  imitation  of  the  real  thing  that  we  found. 

What,  in  short,  my  dear  Robert,  shall  we  of  the  wonderful   century 
find  to  say  to  those  in  the  fields  beyond  the  Styx,   to  those  who  have 

gone  before,  and  to  those   who,   their   visit   paid,   shall  follow  us what 

shall  we  find  to  say  when  they  ask  us,  "Why  could  you  not why  could 

you  not — have  left  well  alone  ?  " 


DEDICA  TION.  ix 

Perhaps  you  have  an  answer  ready.  If  you  have,  I  trust  that  you 
on  that  day  will  whisper  it  in  the  ear  of  your  humble,  obedient,  and 
obliged  servant, 

THE   AUTHOR. 


P.S. — It  may  assist  you  in  reading  the  book  if  I  explain  my  method 
of  treating  the  individual  Ports.  I  have  attempted,  as  it  were,  to  wade 
at  each  step  a  little  deeper  into  the  sea.  Thus  in  the  case  of  Hastings 
I  have  given  a  more  or  less  broad  outline  of  the  histories  of  a  port  and 
its  members  which  flourished  principally  in  Norman  days.  Winchelsea 
and  Rye  I  have  treated  equally  broadly  as  medieval  and  Elizabethan- 
Stewart  towns.  Hythe  and  Romney  I  have  looked  upon  rather  as  the 
capitals  of  districts  than  as  places  of  national-historic  importance.  Thus 
I  have  been  able  to  pay  more  attention  to  their  local  records,  to  the 
pursuits  of  their  inhabitants,  to  their  corporate  institutions.  And,  inasmuch 
as  these  two  towns  were  intimately  connected  with  the  men  of  the  sur- 
rounding countrysides,  I  have  attempted  to  describe  the  characteristics 
of  the  placid  peasantry  that  there  forms  the  mass  of  the  descendants  of 
the  Portsmen. 

Dover  and  Sandwich,  with  their  tremendous  historic  associations, 
I  have  treated  with  some  minuteness  as  both  national  and  local  ports. 
In  this  way  I  have  tried,  firstly,  to  impress  a  reader  with  the  typical 
vicissitudes  of  a  port  and  its  members ;  then  to  show  what  sort  of  a 
thing  was  life  in  a  port  town ;  then  to  give  some  idea  of  how  the  Ports 
and  the  men  who  lived  these  lives  left  their  mark  on  the  history  of  this 
realm  of  England.  On  the  full  flood  of  that  tide  they  made,  as  it  were, 
a  splash  whose  incidental  ripples,  ringing  now  very  remote  from  the 
original  disturbance,  are  still  faintly  discernible  to  those  that  seek  them 
— hominibus  bon(B  voluntatis. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAP. 

I.   THE  SERVICES   OF   THE   PORTS 
n.   HASTINGS   AND   ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD  :    HISTORIC 

III.  HASTINGS   AND   ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD  :    DESCRIPTIVE 

IV.  WINCHELSEA  :    HISTORIC 
V.   WINCHELSEA  AND   ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD   . 

VI.   RYE:    HISTORIC 

VII.   RYE  AND   ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD  :    DESCRIPTIVE 
VIII.   ROMNEY  AND   ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD 
IX.   THE   LIBERTIES   OF   THE   PORT   AND   MARSH   OF   ROMNEY 
X.   THE     PORT     OF     HYTHE,     THE      TOWN      OF     FOLKESTONE,     AND      THE 

NEIGHBOURHOOD 

XL   THE     PORT     OF     HYTHE,     THE      TOWN     OF     FOLKESTONE,     AND     THE 
NEIGHBOURHOOD  ...... 

XII.   THE   PORT   OF   DOVER   AND   ITS   MEMBER,   FAVERSHAM      . 
XIIL  DOVER,   ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD,  AND   FAVERSHAM  . 
XIV.   SANDWICH   AND   ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD         .... 

XV.   SANDWICH  AND   ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD         .... 

APPENDIX — 

A.  ORIGINS   OF   THE   PORTS         ...... 

B.  THE   NORFOLK  AND   SUFFOLK   FISHERIES,   YARMOUTH,   DUNWICH,   ETC 

C.  THE  COURTS  ........ 


PAGE 
I 

22 

42 

61 

76 

92 

IIO 

123 

IS4 
185 

214 

242 
284 
30s 
349 

373 
382 

383 


xii  CONTENTS. 

APPENDIX— 

D.  SELECTED    SPECIMENS   OF    WRITS   OF    SUMMONS    TO    THE    COURTS  ;    OF 

REPORTS    OF    PROCEDURE    IN    THE    MATTER    OF    THE    PRIVILEGES 

OF  THE   PORTS,  ETC.        .  .  .  .  .  .  -384 

E.  WRIT    OF    22ND    EDWARD    L    RE    CAPTAIN     OF    OUR    MARINERS    AND 

SAILORS  OF  THE  CINQUE   PORTS,  ETC.  ....        387 

F.  HONOURS   AT   COURT  .......         388 

G.  THE  GREAT  CHARTER  OF  THE  PORTS         .....        392 

INDEX  ..........         395 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PHOTOGRAVURE    PLATES. 


DOVER  ..... 

EAST  HILL  AND   FISHING  TOWN,   HASTINGS 

THE   GATEWAY,  BATTLE   ABBEY    . 

WINCHELSEA 

MOONRISE,  WINCHELSEA  MARSHES 

RYE  .... 

NEW  ROMNEY  AND  MARSH 

ROMNEY  MARSH  NEAR  LYMPNE . 

HYTHE     .... 

THE   HARBOUR,   F©LKESTONE 

DOVER  CLIFFS 

DOVER   CASTLE 

SANDWICH  FLATS  . 

DEAL  BEACH 


PAGE  PLATES  AND  TEXT  ILLUSTRATIONS 

HEADPIECE  TO   CHAPTER   L  .  .  .  .  . 

FAIRLIGHT  CHURCH  ...... 

PEVENSEY  VILLAGE  ...... 

RUINS  OF   HURSTMONCEUiX  CASTLE  .... 


PAGE 

Frontispiece 

22 
42 
61 

76 
92 
no 
123 
18s 
214 
265 
284 
30s 
349 


I 

42 

49 
60 


XIV 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


"AT   UDIMORE" 

BREDE   PLACE 

ICKLESHAM   CHURCH 

RYE   FROM   THE   MARSHES 

LYDD 

DUNGENESS 

DYMCHURCH   AND   SEA-WALL 

SALTWOOD   CASTLE 

SANDGATE . 

LYMINGE   CHURCH 

NEAR   SIBERTSWOLD 

ST   MARGARET'S   BAY 

ST   CLEMENT'S,   SANDWICH 

THE   BARBICAN,   SANDWICH 

WALMER   CASTLE     . 


67 

78 

88 

no 

154 

161 

180 

185 

200 

214 

251 

294 

305 

349 

370 


2  THE   CINQUE   PORTS. 

of  old,  they  greeted  the  emissaries  of  an  empire  long  since  dead. 
They  stood  to  those  Romans  for  the  something  beyond,  for  the  worlds  that 
remained  for  conquest.  To  them  Caesar  and  his  men  stood  for  light — the 
light  of  civilisation,  of  entrance  into  the  world  that  is  remembered. 

So  it  was  for  ages.  The  cliffs  were  a  lure  to  all  the  hawks  of  Europe, 
just  as  for  ages  the  unseen  shores  of  a  wider  sea  have  lured  us  to  a  larger 
continent.  All  this  is  now  matter  of  history,  matter  that  may  be  at  will 
ignored  or  wondered  at.  But  the  earth,  for  miles  round  those  cliffs,  hides, 
or  reveals  to  those  that  scratch  its  surface,  trace  upon  trace  of  those  its  old 
masters,  who  have  long  since  gone  to  the  grave.  One  sees  hills  mounded 
and  scolloped,  roads  running  wearily  enough  but  very  straight ;  one  sees 
cottage  walls  built  into  vast  fragments  of  hillside  masonry  :  the  plough 
turns  up  red  wine -jars,  coins  revealing  Caesars'  heads.  These  are  the 
marks  of  the  Romans. 

One  sees  again  swellings  on  the  downlands,  a  few  very  small,  very 
old  buildings ;  one  sees  tow-heads,  blue  eyes  and  florid  faces ;  one  hears 
old  words  and  place-names  :  these  are  what  the  Saxons  left.  And  so  it 
goes  on ;  for,  whatever  race  landed  in  England  as  successful  invaders, 
landed  within  the  Liberties  of  the  Five  Ports;  for  an  invader  to  be 
successful  it  has  always  been  essential  that  he  should  hold  this  tract  of 
land  in  the  south  -  eastern  corner  of  England.  On  its  shores  landed 
Caesar  and  Hengist  and  Cnut  and  William  the  Conqueror ;  from 
them  invaders  innumerable  have  been  beaten  off.  The  last  man  who 
set  about  the  subjugation  of  the  island  assembled  his  flotilla  at  Bouloo-ne 
within  sight  of  the  Ports. 

It  is  therefore  natural  that  the  successive  owners  of  the  land 
should  have  specially  organised  the  defences  of  these  shores;  of  these 
shores  where  the  defending  sea  is  at  its  narrowest ;  of  these  shores 
which  lie  within  eyesight  of  a  normally  hostile  land.  Out  of  this 
desire  for  strength  in  these  parts  grew  the  great  organisation  of  the 
Cinque  Ports. 


THE   SERVICES   OF   THE  PORTS.  3 

Stated  very  roughly,  the  history  of  this  organised  defence  is  as 
follows.  As  soon  as  the  Romans  had  established  themselves  in  Britain 
they  found  the  need  of  protecting  themselves  from  piratical  incursions ; 
later,  they  had  to  fear  more  serious  invasions  of  Saxon  migratory  hordes. 
These  they  provided  against  by  making  of  the  whole  coast  -  district  one 
county,  the  government  of  which  they  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  Count 
— the  Comes  littoris  Saxonici.  The  Saxons  either  continued  this  organ- 
isation or  devised  a  new  one  on  very  similar  lines.  Its  general  and  very 
easily  comprehensible  principle  was  that  the  Port  towns  should  find  a 
stated  number  of  ships  for  the  defence  of  the  whole  country,  and  that, 
in  return,  they  should  be  granted,  not  only  exemption  from  national  taxa- 
tion, but  almost  entire  self-government.  They  formed,  in  fact,  a  little 
kingdom  within  the  kingdom.  This  arrangement,  modified  to  suit 
feudal  modes  of  life,  the  Normans  adopted.  It  remained  in  force  for 
many  centuries. 

We  may  then  regard  the  Ports  as  survivals  from  Anglo  -  Saxon 
times. ^  It  is  a  mistake  to  say  that  they  were  the  sole  survivals,  for 
one  must  remember  the  city  of  London.  This  latter,  however,  either 
because  it  was  more  conspicuous  or  more  helpless  than  its  rivals  on  the 
coast,  gradually  lost  its  distinctive  features — features  which  the  Ports  for 
long  retained.  It  becomes  necessary  to  attempt  to  trace  what  these 
features  were.  We  may  begin  with  the  ship  service.  Says  the  charter 
of  Edward  I.  :  "  The  said  Barons  and  their  heirs  (shall)  do  to  us  and 
our  heirs,  kings  of  England,  yearly  their  full  service  of  fifty-seven  ships, 
at  their  cost,  for  fifty  days,  at  the  summons  of  us  and  our  heirs."  In 
return  for  this  service  they  were,  throughout  England,  quit  of  all  toll  and 
custom — of  all  lastage,  tollage,  passage,  carriage,  rivage,  portage,  &c. ; 
they  had  soc  and  sac,  infangtheff  and  utfangtheff,  "  after  the  manner  of 

1  I  have  thought  it  better  to  avoid  making  The  questions  of  their  origin,  and,  to  a  small 
this  chapter  more  than  a  loose  outline-sketch  of  extent,  of  their  social  significance,  I  have  rele- 
the  history  of  the  Ports  as  a  naval  organisation,      gated  to  an  appendix. 


4  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

the  Archbishops,  Bishops,  Earls,  and  Barons  in  their  manors  in  the 
county  of  Kent";  they  had  the  wardship  and  marriage  of  their  heirs, 
and  were  "quit  of  our  right  prise  of  their  proper  wines,  i.e.,  of  one 
tun  of  wine  before  the  mast  and  of  one  after."  This  meant  that,  in 
return  for  their  defence  of  the  shores,  they  were  accorded  absolute 
freedom  to  trade  untaxed  throughout  the  realms  of  the  English  kings — 
a  state  of  affairs  immensely  to  the  profit  of  the  traders  of  the  Ports. 
Amongst  their  general  privileges  the  most  important  was  that  of  governing 
their  internal  affairs  after  their  own  custumals.  In  all  its  essentials  of 
this  kind  we  may  regard  the  charter  of  Edward  I.  as  identical  with 
those  of  the  Conqueror,  of  Rufus,  and  of  Henry  I. 

We  find,  then,  that  outside  the  pyramid  of  the  Norman  feudal 
system,  there  was  in  England  a  little  group  of  commonwealths  quite 
independent  of  the  general  government  of  the  kingdom.  Later  on, 
it  had  its  "Parliament" — the  Court  of  Shepway ;  its  court  for  the 
general  assessment  of  taxes  necessary  for  the  carrying  on  of  the  busi- 
ness of  the  confederacy  ;  its  local  courts  for  the  trial  of  cases  within 
the  individual  courts.  The  codices  of  these  last  were  the  custumals 
of  the  individual  ports.  It  had  even  its  colonies  —  the  fisheries  of 
Yarmouth  and  Dunwich,  and  its  strictly  constitutional  Viceroy,  the 
Lord  Warden.  In  the  course  of  time  all  these  organisations  changed 
shape,  in  the  course  of  time  gradually  lost  all  similitude  to  their 
original  selves;  but  until,  from  purely  physical  causes,  their  prosperity 
and  their  power  departed,  they  retained  most  of  the  general  features  to 
which  I  have  referred.  Such  as  it  was,  this  complicated  machinery 
reached  its  most  perfect  stage  of  development  in  the  time  of  Edward 
I.,  and  began  sensibly  to  decline  under  Richard  II.  But  the  space 
covered  by  these  reigns  is,  of  its  kind,  the  most  sustainedly  glorious 
in  the  history  of  the  nation. 

As  I  have  already  said,  the  Norman  kings  do  not  seem  to  have 
paid  any  very  special  attention  to   the    Ports   as   a   whole.      The    Con- 


THE   SERVICES   OF   THE  PORTS.  5 

queror  and  his  son  William  may  have  had  a  local  affection  for  Hastings, 
used  it  as  a  port  of  passage  frequently  enough,  and  so  on;  but  it  is 
not  until  we  arrive  at  the  reign  of  Henry  II.  that  we  find  the  monarch 
expressing  any  considerable  regard  for  the  organisation  as  a  whole. 
The  exact  reason  of  this  is  not  far  to  seek, — is  to  be  found  in  the 
wars  which  Henry  carried  on,  wars  with  Flanders,  with  France,  with 
his  barons,  with  his  sons,  and  with  the  Scotch  and  Irish.  We  have  no 
records  of  services  rendered  by  the  Ports,  but  it  is  practically  certain 
that  the  ships  they  afforded  were  the  only  ones  of  which  he  could 
permanently  avail  himself. ^  The  charter  that  Richard  I.  granted  to 
Winchelsea  and  Rye  in  1190,  twice  njentions  grants  of  "Henry,  our 
father."  It  is,  however,  not  until  the  reign  of  John  that  the  Cinque 
Ports  rendered  the  first  services  that  we  can  definitely  trace, — a  series 
of  services  which  prevented  what  must  have  been  a  cataclysmic  change 
in  the  course  of  English  history. 

Their  almost  ceaselessly  steadfast  loyalty  to  a  king  of  whom  it  is 
said  that  "  hell  itself  is  defiled  by  his  presence,"  ought  perhaps  to  be  eyed 
askance.  To  the  Ports,  however,  John  was  by  no  means  a  bad  master. 
He  was  at  various  times  so  much  in  need  of  their  assistance  that  he 
seems  to  have  been  exceptionally  anxious  to  conciliate  them.  Thus 
we  find  him  carefully  attending  to  the  complaints  of  Hastings,  and  grant- 
ing a  whole  batch  of  charters  to  the  Ports  individually.  The  Ports 
rewarded  him  well  enough.  Once  he  hid  his  wretched  head  in  Dover 
Castle ;  at  another  time  he  lay  in  the  Isle  of  Wight  entirely  unbefriended 
save  by  the  men  of  the  Ports.  Legend  even  has  it  that  the  ships  of  the 
Ports  kept  so  vigilant  a  watch  for  the  ship  bearing  Innocent's  Bull  of 
Excommunication,  that  finally  the  men  of  Sandwich  got  possession  of 
that  golden  instrument,  and,  tearing  it  into  small  pieces,  consigned  it  to 

^  Sir  H.  Nicolas  (History  of  Royal  Navy,  vol.  i.  These  must  have  been  mercenary  vessels.  The 
p.  104)  says  that  Henry  had  400  large  ships  pre-  "small  fleet"  with  which  in  1174  he  set  sail  from 
pared  for  the  conveyance  of  his  troops  to  Ireland.       Bonfleur  was  most  probably  that  of  the  Five  Ports. 


6  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

the  waves.  The  Ports  themselves,  it  may  be  mentioned,  had  received 
a  special  excommunication,  since  they  had  been  almost  the  only  active 
friends  of  the  combatant  king,  had  attacked  the  Pope's  supporters,  and  so 
on.  One  may  cavil  at  their  upholding  of  a  king  so  skilfully  abomin- 
able as  was  John,  but  there  can  be  no  two  opinions  as  to  their  succeeding 
services  to  the  state,  to  this  realm  of  England.  The  defence  of  Dover 
Castle  may  be  set  down  to  the  genius  of  Hubert  de  Burgh — the  Hubert 
that  Shakespeare  defamed ;  but  William  Longsword's  great  naval  battle  at 
Damme — a  battle  of  which  one  may  consider  Trafalgar  as  a  sexcentenary 
celebration  —  and  Hubert's  subsequent  victory  over  Eustace  the  monk, 
must  be  set  to  the  credit  and  skill  of  the  Portsmen.  But  for  the 
defence  of  Dover,  England  must  have  fallen  under  the  French  yoke  ; 
but  for  the  victory  over  Eustace,  the  French  invasion  of  England 
must  have  been  indefinitely  prolonged. 

Their  next  service  of  national  significance  was  their  upholding  of 
the  Barons  during  the  war  which  made  England  definitely  a  constitutional 
state.  The  great  importance  that  was  by  either  side  attached  to 
the  confederation  one  may  learn  from  the  strenuous  efforts  that  both 
king  and  barons  made  to  gain  possession  of  the  Liberties.  The  batde 
of  Lewes,  which  for  the  time  meant  the  dethronement  of  Henry  HL, 
was  practically  the  end  of  this  struggle.  That  the  Ports  were  too 
precious  or  too  strong  to  be  visited  with  any  heavy  punishment  we 
shall  see  in  subsequent  chapters.  This,  then,  was  the  Golden  Age  of 
the  confederation.  During  all  these  reigns  the  navy  of  the  Ports  must 
be  regarded  as  the  navy  of  England— as  the  medieval  equivalent,  as 
the  child-father,  of  the  fleet  in  being  of  to-day. 

One  continues  the  story  of  the  services  of  the  Ports  :  one  finds  that 
their  ships  were  mainly  instrumental  in  bringing  about  the  conquest 
of  Wales— that,  although  they  alone  did  not  take  by  storm  the  Princi- 
pality, but  for  their  seizure  of  Llewellyn's  Dover,  the  Isle  of  Anglesey ; 
but  for  their  blockading  of  that  prince's  coast-line,  the  army  of  Edward 


THE   SERVICES   OF   THE  PORTS.  7 

could  never  have  reduced  the  Principality.  It  was  as  a  reward  for  their 
services  that  Edward  granted  them  their  great  charter  of  the  sixth 
year  of  his  reign.  In  the  opening  years  of  the  fourteenth  century  we 
find  the  Ports  playing  an  almost  exactly  similar  part  in  the  reduction 
of  Scotland. 

As  regards  the  Channel,  in  the  meanwhile,  they  seem  to  have 
regarded  themselves  as  a  nation  almost  entirely  outside  the  rest  of  the 
kingdom.  They  were  a  police  service,  if  we  regard  their  own  accounts 
— a  naval  equivalent  of  the  northern  Borderers,  if  we  incline  to  those  of 
the  men  of  the  opposite  coasts.  This  culminated  in  the  great  battle 
of  St  Mah6 — a  batrie  which  they  fought,  in  time  of  profound  peace, 
with  the  mariners  of  Normandy,  of  France,  of  Flanders,  and  of  Genoa. 
It  had  once  again  the  effect  of  absolutely  crippling  the  French  king, 
regarded  as  a  naval  potentate ;  and  had  the  effect,  not  perhaps  so  de- 
sirable, of  plunging  England  into  a  new  war  with  France. 

Under  the  Stewart-like  reign  of  Edward  II.,  the  Ports  relapsed  into 
a  kind  of  sea  moss-trooping  organisation.  Indeed,  under  the  warden- 
ship  of  his  favourites,  the  Despensers,  they  became  pirates  pure  and 
simple^  —  or  at  least  as  pure  and  simple  as  it  is  in  the  nature  of 
pirates  to  be.  With  unlaudatory  impartiality  they  plundered  the  ships 
of  the   Hanse    Towns,   of  the   Scotch,  of  the   Spanish,   of  the    French, 

^  Professor  Burrows  objects  to  the  application  sea,  came  into  the  harbour  and  forcibly  carried 

of  the  term  pirates   to   the   men   of  the   Ports.  off  the  Bremen  vessel.     In  1314  or  1315  the  B. 

But,  much  as  I  respect  his  authority,  I  fail  to  Mary  of  Bayonne,  belonging  to  subjects  of  the 

see  how  else  one  can  characterise  men  who  at  King  of  England,  worth   with  her  cargo  more 

this    period   had   a   record   like   the   following  :  than  ^2000,  was  wrecked  on  the  Gascony  coast. 

"Sep.  1322.     Two  merchants  of  Shireborne  com-  "The    wreck    was    immediately    plundered    by 

plain   that  off  Portsmouth   Robert   de   Battayle  sailors    belonging    to     Winchelsea,     Rye,    and 

and  many  others  of  the  Cinque  Ports  boarded  Romney."      When    the    Lord    Warden,    Robert 

their  ship  and  carried  off  about  ;^8o  worth   of  de   Kendale,   attempted   to   hold   an   inquiry  at 

cargo."     In  the  same  volume  of  the  Rot.  Pari.  Winchelsea,  the  men  of  that  town  and  of  Rye 

one   finds   the   complaint   of  Albert  of  Bremen.  and  Romney  "by  force  and  violence  prevented 

Whilst  his  ship  the  Cruxenburgh  was  in  the  port  the   investigation    from    taking    place"    (Harris 

of  Orwell,  two  ships,  one  of  them  from  Winchel-  Nicolas,  vol.  i.  pp.  359,  360). 


8  THE   CINQUE   PORTS. 

and  of  the  Hanse-like  confederation  of  the  western  ports  of  the  English 
coast. 

As  a  natural  consequence,  the  French  had  leisure  to  get  together 
a  fleet  that  took  the  place  of  the  one  destroyed  at  St  Mahe ;  nay, 
more,  they  contrived  to  become  masters  of  what  of  the  Channel  was 
not  immediately  dominated  by  the  ships  of  the  individual  Ports.  They 
occupied  the  Channel  Islands,  sacked  a  number  of  towns  on  the  western 
shores  of  the  Channel,  captured  several  famous  English  vessels.  With 
the  advent  of  Edward  III.  matters  gradually  assumed  a  different  aspect, 
and  the  Ports  again  embarked  upon  services  of  a  more  national  kind. 
The  turning-point  was  reached  about  the  years  1338-39.  In  the 
former  year  Philip  of  France  got  together  a  fleet  whose  instructions 
were  to  ravage  the  southern  coasts  of  England  "  without  any  pity." 
In  1338  this  fleet  sacked  Southampton,  captured  the  famous  cogs 
Christopher  and  Edward,  and  made  various  comparatively  unsuccess- 
ful attempts  upon  individual  Port  towns.  In  1339  the  fleet  of  the 
Ports,  numbering  sixty,  was  assembled  by  order  of  a  Parliament  held 
in  February.  Nevertheless,  in  July  of  that  year,  the  French  sacked 
the  town  of  Rye.  This  was  in  the  nature  of  a  surprise  visit,  and  the 
ships  of  the  Ports  being  warned,  speedily  assembled  and  chased  the 
French  into  Boulogne.^  Here  acting,  according  to  Holinshed,  under 
cover  of  a  thick  fog  they  landed,  burnt  part  of  the  town,  and  returned 
with  the  booty  that  the  French  had  taken.  A  few  days  afterwards, 
being  reinforced  by  the  "king's  ships,"  they  burnt  five  towns  in 
Normandy  and  captured  or  destroyed  no  less  than  eighty  ships.^  Their 
vessels,  however,  no  longer  formed  the  sole  navy  of  England.  Edward 
III.,    perhaps,    learning    a    lesson    from    his    grandfather's    conquest    of 

1  "  Et  Angliffi  insequebantur  eos  usque  ^o/o«-  —videlicet,  Austr.,  Rye,  Rynele—tX  alias  tres 
iam  de  nostre  Dame  et  posuerunt  in  flammam  quarum  nomina  non  habeo,  et  incenderunt  de 
ignis  magnam  partem  vilte."— Knyghton  (Script.  classe  Nonnannorum  ibidem,  scilicet  Ixxx  naves." 
X.  2573).                              ^  —Ibid.,  2574. 

2  "  .  .  .  Inunderunt  v.  villas,  scilicet  tres  portus 


THE   SERVICES   OF  THE  PORTS.  g 

Wales,  began  to  pay  more  attention  to  the  collection  of  a  standing 
navy.  Thus  that  of  the  Ports  no  longer  stood  alone,  though  for  a 
long  time  it  must  have  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  English  fleets  :  its 
seamen  must  have  been  the  most  experienced  and  the  most  daring. 

In  1340  was  fought  the  great  battle  of  Sluys.  Here,  if  the 
ships  of  the  Ports  were  in  full  force,  they  must  have  numbered 
rather  more  than  a  quarter  of  the  whole  navy,  but  I  should 
be  inclined  to  think  they  did  not  actually  amount  to  more  than 
one  -  sixth.  Of  their  admiral.  Sir  William  Clinton,  Earl  of  Hunt- 
ingdon, Minot  says,  "  Mani  stout  bachilere  broght  he  on  raw."  Dur- 
ing the  next  decade  the  ships  of  the  Ports  were  engaged  in  almost 
incessant  warfare.  Edward  seems  to  have  used  the  ports  of  Sandwich 
and  of  Winchelsea  as  his  most  usual  places  of  embarkation  and  of 
return.  From  Sandwich  he  went  to  the  battle  of  Crecy,  from  Sandwich 
to  the  siege  of  Calais ;  to  Sandwich  he  returned  after  that  siege.  The 
Ports  did  good  service  at  the  taking  of  Calais,  and  did  good  service 
at  the  battle  of  Lespagnols-sur-Mer,  three  years  afterwards.  Of  this 
latter  battle  I  cite  the  never  to  be  sufficiently  praised  description  by 
Froissart.  It  was  a  battle  in  which  the  Ports'  navy  may  or  may  not 
have^  formed  the  entire  fighting  strength  of  the  English  fleet,  but  it 
was  one  so  typical  and  the  description  of  it  is  so  "gentle  and  joyous," 
that  it  may  stand  here  as  the  greatest  and  last  of  Cinque  Ports  victories  : 
"At  that  time  there  was  great  hatred  between  the  King  of  England  and 
the  Spaniards  for  certain  evil  deeds  and  pillages  that  they  had  done  to 
the    English    upon    the   high    seas."       The    Spanish    fleet    was   at    Sluys, 


1  I   am  inclined   to  think  that  the   fleet  was  Ports   had   found   in    1338-39   (Nicolas,   vol.   ii. 

composed  about  equally  of  king's  and  of  Ports'  p.    36)    would   have    amounted  to   thirty.      We 

ships.     Sir  Harris  Nicolas  puts  the  number  of  know  that,   in  addition   to   manning  their  own 

ships  engaged  at  fifty.     Now  the  king,  at  the  ships,    they    did    as    much    for    several   of  the 

siege   of  Calais,   is   said  to   have   had   twenty-  king's,   many   if  not   most    of  which   they  had 

five  ships  (Hakluyt,  vol.  i.  p.  17)  and  half  the  even  built, 
navy   of   the    Ports.      The    number   which   the 


10  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

loading    its    ships   with   such    cloths    and   things   that    to    them    seemed 

good   and   profitable,  and  about  the   time  of  their   sailing   the    King   of 

England  came  to  Winchelsea,   to  hold  his  court  in  an  abbey  near   the 

sea,    and   thither   came   madame   the    Queen   his   wife.       The   Spaniards 

knew    that    the    King    would    attack    them,    therefore   when    they   went 

into   their   ships   they   had    ready   "so   much    and   such   a   many   of   all 

kind   of  artillery  that   it   were  a  marvel    to  think   of.     When   they  saw 

that   the  wind  was   fair   for   them,  they   up -anchored  :    And   were    forty 

great  ships  all  of  a  make,  so  strong  and  so  fair  that  it  was  pleasant  to 

behold  them  :    And,  at  the  high  tops  of  their  masts,  they  had  mounted 

their    castles,^    filled    with    stones    and    with    flintstones    to    throw,    and 

soldiers    to   guard   them.       Moreover,    there   were   upon   the    masts    the 

streamers,  bearing   their   arms   and   devices,   which    waved    in   the   wind, 

and  streamed  and  fluttered ;    there  was  great  beauty  in  the  seeing  and 

in  the  conceiving  of  it.   .   .   .   They  thought  and  held  themselves  strong 

enough   to    fight   upon   the    sea    the    King    of   England   and    his    power ; 

And,  in  this  mind,  came  they  swimming  before  the  wind — for  they  had 

it   with   them — as  far   as   off  Calais.  .  .  .  The   King  of   England  stood 

on    the  deck   of   his   ship,   dressed  in  a  black  jake  of  velvet,   and  wore 

upon   his   head   a   cap   of  black   beaver,   which  well  became  him.     And 

at  that   time   he  was,  as   those   have   told   me   that   were   with   him,   as 

joyous  as  he  had  ever  been  before.     And  he  made  his   minstrels  play 

to  him  a  dance  of  Almain,  that   Messer  John   Chandos,  who  was  there, 

had  newly  brought  back;    and   then,   for   his   delight,   he   had    the    same 

chevalier   sing  with  his  minstrels,   and   in   it  took  great   pleasure  :    And 

ever  and  anon  he  looked  up,  for  he  had  put  a  guard  in  the  top-casde  of 

his  ship  to  give  warning  when  the  Spaniards  should  approach.     Whilst  the 

king  was  in  this  disport,  and  whilst  all  his  knights  gladded  to  see  him  so 

joyous,  the  watch,  who  was  aware  of  the  Navy  of  the  Spaniards,  cries  : 

1  "  Chateauxbreteskd's  "—these  seem  to  have  been  little  more  than   casks  which  they  slun?  u 
into  the  mast-heads. 


THE   SERVICES   OF   THE  PORTS.  ii 

" '  Ho!  I  see  one  come  a-sailing;  and  I  think  it  is  a  ship  of  Spain.' 
Then  the  minstrels  fell  silent,  and  he,  being  asked  if  he  saw  more, 
within  a  little  answered  : 

"  '  Yes,  I  see  one,  and  then  two,  and  then  three,  and  then  four,' 
and  then  cried,   when  he  saw  the  great  fleet : 

" '  I  see  so  many,  if  God  aids  me,  that  I  cannot  number  them,' 
Then  the  king  and  his  men  knew  well  that  it  was  the  Spaniards. 
So  the  king  had  his  trumpets  sound ;  and  all  the  ships  set  themselves 
in  rank  and  drew  together  to  be  in  better  order  and  the  more  securely 
to  act ;  for  they  knew  well  that  battle  must  be,  since  the  Spaniards 
came  in  such  a  great  fleet.  It  was  then  late ;  as  it  might  be,  the 
hour  of  vespers,  or  thereabouts.  So  the  king  bade  bring  wine,  and 
drank,  and  all  his  knights,  and  then  he  set  his  helmet  on  his  head 
and  so  did  all  those  others. 

"  Soon  the  Spaniards  drew  near,  who  might  well  have  gone  away 
without  fighting,  had  they  wished  it ;  for  since  they  were  well -loaded 
and  had  great  ships,  they  need  not  then  have  spoken  with  these  English, 
had  they  so  willed  it :  But,  through  pride  and  through  presumption, 
they  would  not  pass  before  them  without  speaking  with  them :  And 
they  came  down  on  them  and  all  together  began  the  battle. 

"  When  the  King  of  England,  who  was  upon  his  ship,  saw  the 
manner  of  it,  he  set  his  ship  against  a  Spaniard  who  was  coming  towards 
him,  and  said  to  him  who  steered  his  vessel  :  'Set  me  against  this 
ship  that  is  coming;  for  I   will  joust  with  him.' 

"  The  constable  would  never  have  dared  do  otherwise,  since  the 
king  so  willed  it.  So  he  set  the  ship  against  that  ship  of  Spain  which 
came  before  the  wind  with  all  sails  set.  The  ship  of  the  king  was 
strong  and  well- timbered,  else  she  would  have  been  broken  :  for  she, 
and  the  Spaniard  ship,  which  was  large  and  of  great  weight,  met  with 
such  fury  that  it  seemed  a  tempest  had  fallen  there  ;  and  at  the  rebound  ^ 

'  This  perhaps  means  "  at  the  second  contact.'' 


12  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

that  they  made  the  [top]  castle  of  the  king's  ship  struck  the  castle  of 
the  Spaniard  ship  in  such  a  way,  that  the  strength  of  the  mast  broke 
it  on  the  mast  where  it  was  placed,  so  that  it  fell  into  the  sea.  So  all 
those  that  were  in  it  were  drowned  and  lost, 

"  By  this  encounter  the  king's  ship  was  so  astonied  that  its  seams 
opened  and  it  leaked,  so  that  the  knights  were  aware  of  it  :  But  said 
nothing  to  the  king,  but  set  themselves  to  bale  and  to  caulk.  Then 
said  the  king,  considering  the  ship  with  which  he  had  jousted  :  '  Grapple 
my  ship  with  that,  for  I  will  have  her.' 

"  Then  answered  his  knights :  '  Sire,  let  that  one  go ;  you  shall 
have  better.'  This  ship  passed  on  and  there  came  another  great  ship. 
So,  with  hooks  of  iron  and  with  chains,  the  knights  of  the  king  made 
their  ship  fast  to  it.  Then  commenced  a  battle,  hard,  and  proudly 
fierce,  and  bows  began  to  draw  and  the  Spaniards  with  a  goodwill  to 
fight  and  keep  them  back,  and  not  only  in  one  place,  but  moreover 
in  ten  or  in  twelve.  And  when  they  saw  themselves,  the  game  begun, 
in  the  strongest  of  their  enemies,  they  grappled  with  them  and  did 
marvels  of  arms.  But  the  English  had  not  greatly  the  better  of  it : 
For  the  Spaniards  were  in  great  ships,  higher  and  greater  enough 
than  the  ships  of  the  English  :  so  that  they  had  great  advantage  in 
aiming,  and  in  firing  and  throwing  great  iron  bolts,^  with  which  they 
gave  those  English  much  to  suffer. 

"The  knights  of  the  King  of  England  who  were  in  his  ship, 
since  she  was  in  danger  of  sinking,  for  she  let  in  water  as  above  has 
been  said,  hastened  exceedingly  to  conquer  the  ship  with  which  they 
had   grappled;    and   there   were    done    many   great    deeds    of  arms.      In 

>  The  French  words  are:  " barreaux  defer."  that  be  the  case,  there  seems  to  be  no  reason 
One  is  tempted  to  think  that  these  were  cannon-  why  the  Spaniards  should  not  have  been 
balls.  Sir  H.  Nicolas  has  a  theory— whether  equally  well  armed.  This  may  account  for 
since  controverted  or  not  I  do  not  know -that  the  holes  in  the  ship  of  the  Prince  of  Wales- 
cannon  were  employed  on  board  the  "ships  of  "Car  leur  nef  fut  troiu'e  &\.  pertuisc'e  en  plusieurs 
the  kings   of  England"   as   early   as    1338.      If  lieux." 


THE   SERVICES    OF   THE  PORTS.  13 

the  end  the  king  and  those  of  his  vessel  bore  themselves  so  well 
that  this  ship  was  conquered ;  and  all  these  set  overboard  that  were 
in  it.  Then  was  told  to  the  king  the  peril  in  which  he  had  been, 
and  how  his  ship  leaked,  and  that  it  behoved  him  to  set  himself  aboard 
that  which  he  had  conquered.  The  king  favoured  this  counsel,  and 
entered  into  the  said  Spaniard  ship,  and  so  did  his  knights  and  all  he 
had  aboard.  And  they  left  the  other  quite  empty  and  set  about  to 
go  and  attack  their  enemies,  who  were  fighting  very  valiantly  and  had 
arbalastiers  who  shot  great  bolts  that  much  exercised  those  English.  .  .  . 

"  The  young  Prince  of  Wales  and  those  of  his  company  fought 
other  where  :  So  their  ship  was  grappled  and  stopped  by  a  great  Spaniard 
ship  :  and  there  the  Prince  and  his  people  had  much  to  suffer,  for  their 
ship  was  holed  in  many  places,  through  which  the  water  entered  at 
great  speed ;  nor,  for  anything  that  they  could  do,  could  they  keep 
her  from  her  sinking.  In  this  case  the  people  of  the  Prince  were 
in  great  anguish  and  fought  very  bitterly  to  conquer  the  Spaniard 
ship ;  but  this  they  could  not  adventure,  for  she  was  nobly  held  and 
defended.  So,  as  the  Prince  and  his  people  were  in  this  peril  and 
danger,  came  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  hastening  alongside  of  the  Prince's 
ship ;  and  understood  that  they  had  not  the  better  of  it,  and  that  their 
ship  was  in  evil  case,  for  they  were  all  a -baling.  So  he  went  about 
and  stayed  by  the  Spaniard  ship,  then  cried  : 

"'Derby  a  la  rescousse,' 

"  Then  were  those  Spaniards  boarded  and  thwacked  in  goodly 
wise,  nor  could  they  long  support  it.  So  their  ship  was  taken  and  all 
they  set  overboard  without  any  being  granted  quarter  :  and  the  Prince 
and  his  people  went  aboard.  Scarcely  had  they  done  so  than  their  ship 
sank.      So  they  understood  well,  then,  the  great  peril  they  had  been  in. 

"  Otherwhere  fought  the  barons  and  knights  of  England,  each 
one  according  to  his  order ;  and  they  had  need  to  be  both  bold  and 
active,  for  they  found  men  to  speak  with." 


14  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

"The  ship  called  the  Salle  du  Roi,  commanded  by  Robert  of 
Namur,  had  grappled  with  a  Spaniard  that  was  so  large  that  it  was 
carrying  them  off  willy-nilly.  Thus  faring,  they  passed  near  the  ship 
of  the  king,  so  they  cried  '  Rescue  the  Salle  du  Roi.'  But  they  were 
not  perceived,  for  it  was  already  late.  .  .  .  Now  believe  that  these 
Spaniards  would  have  carried  them  away  at  their  ease,  when  a  varlet 
of  Monsieur  Robert,  who  called  himself  Hanekin,  did  there  a  great 
deed  of  arms  :  for,  with  his  naked  sword  in  his  hand,  he  leaped  aboard 
that  ship  of  Spain,  and  came  to  the  mast  and  cut  the  cable  which 
held  up  the  sail;  with  which  the  sail  fell  down  and  had  no  more 
strength.  For  withal,  by  great  strength  of  body,  he  cut  the  four 
sovran  cords  which  governed  the  mast  and  the  sail ;  and  that  ship 
stopped  dead  and  could  no  longer  sail  onwards."  Robert  de  Namur  fell 
upon  the  Spaniards  struggling  in  the  folds  of  the  sail  and  made  an 
end  of  them. 

"  I  cannot  speak  of  all  nor  say,  '  This  man  did  well  and  this 
better ' ;  .  .  .  but,  in  the  end,  the  day  fell  to  the  English,  and  the 
Spaniards  there  lost  fourteen  ships.^  The  rest  passed  on  and  saved 
themselves.  When  they  had  all  gone  and  the  said  king  had  no  one 
with  whom  to  fight,  they  sounded  with  their  trumpets  the  retreat.  So 
they  went  their  way  towards  England,  and  took  land  at  Rye  and  at 
Wincenesee,  a  little  after  the  day  was  done. 

"  At  that  very  hour  went  the  king  and  his  children,  .  .  .  and  all  the 
barons  that  were  there,  out  of  their  ships,  and  took  horse  in  the  town, 
and  went  a-horse-back  towards  the  manor  of  the  queen,  who  was,  it  may 
be,  two  English  leagues  from  there.  So  was  the  queen  greatly  rejoiced 
when  she  saw  her  lord  and  her  children  ;  she  had  had  great  anguish  of 
heart  that  day  through  for  fear  of  those  Spaniards  :  for,  at  that  place  of 
the  shores  of  England  there  are  mountains  from  which  they  had  seen  the 

1  "  Capti  sunt  ibi  igitur  viginti  sex  naves  magnas,  reliquis  submersis  vel  in  fugam  versis." — 
Th.  Wals.  (Riley's  ed.,  vol.  i.  p.  275). 


THE   SERVICES   OF   THE  PORTS.  15 

strife  :  for  it  had  been  a  clear  day  and  a  day  of  fine  weather.  So  they 
had  told  the  queen,  for  she  had  wished  to  know,  that  the  Spaniards  had 
forty  great  ships  :  so  was  the  queen  of  very  good  comfort  again  when  she 
saw  her  husband  and  his  children.  So  those  Lords  and  those  Ladies 
passed  their  night  in  great  revels,  talking  of  arms  and  of  love."^ 

In  the  tragic  years  of  the  end  of  Edward's  reign,  in  the  days  of 
relaxed  government  at  home  and  of  a  new  growth  of  strength  in  France, 
bad  days  came  once  more  for  the  Five  Ports.  They  assisted  at  the 
glorious,  but  unfortunate,  two-days'  battle  off  La  Rochelle  in  1371,  and 
their  ships  formed  part  of  the  inglorious  fleet  with  which  for  five  weeks 
the  king  aimlessly  kept  the  sea,  and  on  which  he  is  said  to  have  spent 
the  incredible  sum  of  ;^900,ooo.  As  after  the  battle  of  Lespagnols-sur- 
Mer,  the  king  landed  at  Winchelsea — but  this  time  without  much  heart 
for  revelry.  Under  Richard  things  went  from  bad  to  worse  in  the  Ports — 
the  French  "  took  what  vengeance  they  would  on  them." 

In  fact,  from  this  time  forward  they  can  hardly  be  said  to  have 
formed  the  van  of  the  navy.  They  found  a  diminishing  quota  of  ships 
when  called  upon.  Their  ships  formed  part  of  the  fleet  that  transported 
Henry  V.  and  his  army  to  Agincourt,  and  they  enjoyed  a  kind  of  Indian 
summer  during  that  king's  French  wars,  but  the  winter  of  their  discon- 
tent set  in  heavily  with  that  of  the  nation  at  large  before  the  end  of  the 
Wars  of  the  Roses.  Unlike  the  nation  at  large  as  a  naval  power,  they 
never  knew  the  spring  again. 

The  cause  of  their  decline  was,  as  I  have  said,  purely  physical. 
It  came  about  through  the  silting  up  of  their  harbours.  That  this  was 
the  case  will  appear,  lamentably  reiterated,  in  the  histories  of  the  in- 
dividual Ports.  For  some  centuries  this  only  indirectly  affected  the 
wealth    of  their   communities :    the    harbours    remained    deep    enough    to 

^  Chroniques  de  Froissart  (Buchon's  ed.,  vol.  i.  found  it  better,  for  my  own  purpose,  to  give  my 
p.  285  et  segg.)  Johne's  translation  differs  rather  own  rendering.  In  Lord  Berners'  translation 
considerably  in  matters  of  detail,  and   I   have      the  passage  is  unfortunately  missing. 


1 6  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

float  the  light  boats  that  sufficed  to  cross  the  Channel.  They  became 
in  time  of  war  little  more  than  providers  of  transport  and  victualling 
vessels ;  they  carried  barrels  of  the  arrows  that  struck  down  the  French 
at  Agincourt ;  and  in  time  they  sank  into  the  state  of  small  mercantile, 
later  of  small  agricultural  and  fishing,  towns.  They  were  wealthy  enough 
to  pay  for  shipping  in  the  time  of  the  Armada  —  they  even  built  the 
famous  fire-ships,  so  it  is  said.  But  they  could  no  longer  house  the  ships 
they  paid  for,  and  thus  "  les  dits  nefs  "  lost  their  communal  character — 
were,  in  fact,  nothing  more  than  presents  to  the  Tudor  and  Stewart 
sovereigns.  Their  last  naval  service  was  the  formation,  under  the  warden- 
ship  of  Pitt,  of  the  Cinque  Ports  flotilla-navy  of  armed  fishing-smacks — a 
flotilla  which  did  some  service  :  captured  a  few  of  Napoleon's  gunboats, 
beat  off  a  few  privateers.  They  did  much  of  this  under  the  deputy- 
admiralty  of  Lady  Hester  Stanhope. 

With  regard  to  the  ships  themselves — the  cogs,  crayers,  and  snakes 
— it  is  interesting  to  consider  that  the  fleet  commanded  by  Lady  Hester 
was,  as  far  as  size  goes,  almost  the  exact  equal  of  that  commanded  by 
Hubert  de  Burgh.  For  the  counterpart  presentments  of  these  vessels 
we  have  to  go  to  the  seals  of  the  Ports.^  There  we  see  that  the  earliest 
vessels  in  shape  closely  resembled  a  section  of  melon-peel — a  section  of, 
let  us  say,  one  quarter.  The  bows  and  the  stern  ran  skywards  :  at  the 
bows  and  the  stern  there  was  a  kind  of  castellated  erection.  These 
"castles"  were,  then,  a  kind  of  deck  —  a  deck  which,  it  is  said,  was 
removable,  and  was  only  used  in  time  of  war.  The  castellation  we  may 
or  may  not  regard  as  a  decorative  fiction  of  the  seal-engraver.  The 
ships   served    during    times    of  peace,    as    communal  —  or   corporation  — 

1  Pictures  of  these  seals   are   not   difficult   to  tions  of  ships  of  many  types.     One  of  the  best  is 

come  by.     One  may  see  a  number  of  them  in  that  of  Hastings,  which  represents  a  sea-fight 

Boys' '  History  of  Sandwich.'    The  best  collection  That  of  Tenterden,  which  was  incorporated  very 

of  impressions  of  the  Ports'  seals  is,  I  should  say,  late,  shows  a  four-masted  ship  of  the  "  carack  " 

that  of  the  Museum  of  the  Sussex  Arch.  Soc.  in  the  type, 
barbican  of  Lewes  Castle.    They  give  representa- 


THE  SERVICES   OF   THE  PORTS.  17 

wine  -  ships  and  carriers.  They  brought  wine  from  Gascony,  took 
wool  to  Calais,  or  plied  as  cross  -  Channel  packets.  They  had  but 
one  mast  and  but  one  sail ;  were  steered  by  an  oar  let  over  the  side. 
They  had  a  crew  of  twenty  men,  and  a  gromet  or  garcion  —  a  ship's 
boy.  Later  on  "castles"  were  set  at  the  mastheads  —  castles  which 
look  excessively  like  large  casks,  through  the  bottom  of  which  the 
mast  passed. 

The  ships  must  have  been  more  seaworthy  than  one  imagines,  for 
the  general  habit  of  the  Cinque  Ports  mariners  was  to  attack  their  enemies 
during  a  gale.  Their  favourite  manoeuvre  was  to  keep  well  away  to  wind- 
ward until  it  suited  them  to  "  ram "  their  enemies,  and  it  is  moderately 
certain  that  it  was  to  this  skill  and  to  this  foul  -  weather  seamanship 
that  the  Cinque  Ports  owed  the  large  number  of  their  successes.  Says 
Captain  Mahan  :  ^  "  The  writer  must  guard  himself  from  appearing  to 
advocate  elaborate  tactical  movements  issuing  in  barren  demonstrations. 
He  believes  that  a  fleet  seeking  a  decisive  result  must  close  with  its 
enemy,  but  not  until  some  advantage  has  been  gained  for  the  collision, 
which  will  usually  be  gained  by  manoeuvring,  and  will  fall  to  the  best- 
drilled  and  managed  fleet."  This  seems  to  have  been  the  canon  of  the 
Cinque  Ports  tactical  law.  To  the  facts  that  they  were  a  police,  a  priva- 
teering, a  piratical,  naval  force ;  that  their  ships  kept  the  sea  from  year's  end 
to  year's  end,  and  were  always  ready  to  engage  an  enemy,  we  may  attribute 
their  superiority  over  the  navies  of  the  whole  world  of  their  day.  How 
great  their  reputation  must  have  been  one  may  learn  from  the  fact  that 
the  men  of  a  western  port  gained  and  still  keep  the  name  of  "  Gallants 
of  Fowey,"  because  one  of  their  vessels  once  beat  off  a  number  of  Rye 
smacksmen  who  had  attempted  to  force  the  Gallants  to  salute  the  flag 
of  the  Ports, 

With  regard  to  the  moral  of  the  sea  -  history  of  the   Ports,  I    think 
it   must   be   regarded   as   merely    emphasising    the    doctrine    of    English 

1  Influence  of  Sea  Power  upon  History,  Note  i,  p.  4. 
B 


1 8  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

naval  superiority  existing  in  the  earliest  times  and  continued  to  the 
present.  The  French  ravaged  the  English  coast  times  out  of  number; 
each  and  every  of  the  Ports  were  sacked  by  them  times  out  of  number ; 
there  were  times  when  the  French  fleets  continuously  held  the  seas 
alone.  But  eventually  one  is  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  England, 
at  any  rate  during  Cinque  Port  days,  invariably  did  rule  the  waves— 
invariably,  that  is,  when  she  had  the  intention  of  ruling  them. 

The  exploits  of  the  French,  audacious  and  effectual  as  they  were, 
were  essentially  military. ^  Under  "  Lewis  the  Dauphin,"  in  the  days  of 
John,  they  landed  a  force  in  the  country,  and  might  have  held  it  in- 
definitely, had  not  the  Ports'  fleet  destroyed  their  sea  -  communications. 
Their  burnings  of  the  Port  towns  were  little  more  than  "  landing- 
party  exploits."  The  Ports'  navy  more  than  once  destroyed  great  and 
efficient  fleets  of  French  ships ;  the  French  never,  as  far  as  I  have  been 
able  to  discover,  won  a  victory  over  a  really  representative  fleet  of  the 
Ports — never,  that  is,  at  a  time  when  the  Ports  were  kept  under  control 
by  a  sovereign  of  any  ability  whatever.  It  must  be  understood  that  I 
limit  the  time  of  this  dictum  strictly  to  the  centuries  before  the  Wars  of 
the  Roses. 

After  the  reign  of  Henry  VI.,  the  Ports'  ships,  which  perforce 
remained  cock -boats,  had  naturally  no  chance  against  vessels  of  the 
Royal  Navy  of  France,  against  vessels  that  began  more  and  more  to 
approach  the  type  of  the  Harry  Grace  de  Dieu.  How  disproportionate 
the  sizes  were,  even  in  the  fifteenth  century,  we  may  gather  from  the 
account  of  the  fight  between  five  "balingers"  of  the  Ports  and  a  "carack." 
These  balingers  had  been  part  of  the  fleet  which,  in  the  maugre  of  the 
French  king,  conducted  Henry  V.  to  meet  the  Emperor  at  Calais  :  "  At 
daybreak,  ...  the   Earl  of  Warwick  and  five  of  the  balingers  came  up 

1  This   theory   is   curiously  confirmed  by  the      two    French    ships    which    were    captured    and 
account  of  the  wooden  fortifications,  which  were      brought  into  Sandwich  {q.v.) 
to  have  been  set  up  after  landing,  found  aboard 


THE  SERVICES   OF   THE  PORTS.  19 

with  the  carack,  which  was  higher  by  the  length  of  a  lance  than  the 
highest  of  the  English  ;  but  though  very  unequal  in  force,  they  grappled 
with  and  attacked  her.  A  fight  ensued  with  varying  success,  and  they 
then  rested  by  common  consent.  As  soon  as  they  had  refreshed  them- 
selves the  action  was  renewed  with  great  vigour,  and  lasted  until  night, 
when  the  carack  was  on  the  point  of  surrendering.  At  that  time  there 
were  many  killed  and  wounded  on  both  sides ;  but  the  English  had 
expended  all  their  ammunition,  and,  not  having  any  scaling-ladders,  they 
were  unable  to  continue  the  engagement,  and  had  the  mortification  of 
seeing  the  enemy  pursue  her  course  towards  Sluys."  ^ 

The  subject  of  the  gradual  decay  of  the  Ports  as  military  institutions, 
of  their  sudden  rise  as  local  watering-places,  is  one  which  I  am  not  here 
concerned  to  discuss.  In  their  decay  they  seem  to  have  done  the 
nation  some  service — some  disservice,  the  followers  of  the  cult  of  the 
White  Rose  might  say.  There  seems  little  doubt  that  the  peculiar 
methods  of  their  services  gave,  to  some  extent,  a  pretext,  if  not  the 
very  idea,  of  the  ship  -  money  tax ;  a  tax  against  which — as  a  tax — 
it  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  there  was  less  to  be  said  than  against 
some  others  that  one  pays  uncomplainingly.  The  men  of  the  Ports, 
as  a  rule,  resisted  the  imposition,  and,  as  in  the  times  of  the  Barons' 
War,  they  were,  to  that  extent,  in  the  van  of  a  protesting  nation. 

1  History  of  the  Royal  Navy,  vol.  ii.  p.  425.  last  were  a  small  kind  of  vessel.     The  seal  of 

Precisely  what  a  "balinger"  was  I  do  not  know.  John  Holland,  Earl  of  Huntingdon,  which  Jal 

Jal  says  that  the  name — which  he  translates  as  figures  four  or  five  times,  and  to  which  he  assigns 

"whale"  —  meant  a   ship  which   looked  like   a  the  date  of  1417,  shows  a  quite  primitive,  but 

whale  or  sea-monster.     He  figures  a  balinger,  rather  lofty,  one-masted,  one-sailed  ship.     That 

engraved  by  F.  Huiis  from  a  painting  by  Breughel  of   the    Duke   of    Gloucester    (1467)    is    almost 

the  elder,  which,  from  the  heights  of  its  poop  exactly    similar.      If  we    take    these   as    repre- 

and  forecastles,   its   bulging   sides   and   so    on,  sentative  ships  of  great  nobles,  we  are  driven 

certainly    bears     a    strong     resemblance    to    a  to  the  conclusion  that  English  ships  as  a  whole 

fabulous   monster.      But   this   can   hardly  have  remained   perfectly   primitive — resembled    those 

been  the  type  of  ship  of  the  ports.     Henry  V.'s  of  the   Bayeux   tapestry  —  whilst   those   of  the 

writs  speak  of  ships,  barges,  and  balingers,  from  French,    Spanish,    and    Genoese    had    attained 

which  one  may  draw  the  deduction  that  these  large  dimensions. 


20  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

These,  then,  are  their  services  to  England.  They  may  or  may 
not  be  estimated  highly :  if  one  be  a  militarist,  one  must,  I  suppose, 
value  them  highly ;  if  not,  one  may  regard  them  as  accursed.  They 
have  something  to  answer  for  in  that  they,  more  than  any  other  towns 
or  townsmen,  sowed  the  seed  of  that  traditional  enmity  that  exists 
between  England  and  the  nation  to  whom  all  the  world  should  cherish 
a  tender  feeling — to  the  pleasant  land  of  France.  Our  debt  of  gratitude 
to  them  would  have  been  greater  if,  instead  of  teaching  us  how,  inevitably, 
to  beat  the  French  at  sea,  they  had  taught  us  how  to  be  for  ever 
friendly  with  a  noble  nation.  As  it  is,  we  have  to  be  thankful  to  them 
for  making  us  what  we  are,  for  making  us  not  cosmopolitan,  but  noth- 
ing better  and  nothing  worse  than  good  Englishmen. 

One  must,  though  the  most  pacific  of  quietists,  admire  the  gift  of 
perseverance.  This  the  people  of  this  small  confederation  had  in  the 
highest  degree.  One  must,  I  think,  admire  the  gift  of  resourcefulness, 
of  doing  good  work  with  the  fewest  of  tools  ;  this  gift,  too,  they  had. 
One  must,  I  think,  admire  great  schools  —  the  great "  schools  that  mould 
the  youth  of  a  nation,  that  mould  young  nations.  The  confederation 
of  the  Cinque  Ports  was  one  of  these  schools  to  the  young  nation 
that  to-day  flourishes  as  Great,  as  Greater,  Britain. 

They  were,  as  nations  go,  a  little  nation.  That  little  nation  had 
its  time  of  flourishing,  had  its  time  of  decay,  has  its  time  of  oblivion ; 
but,  such  as  they  were,  they  formed  an  epitome  of  the  country.  This 
little  abstract  did  contain  that  large  that  lives  in  England.  England, 
too,  must  in  the  end  fail  before  the  oncoming  of  a  New  Spirit  of  the 
Age— must  in  the  end.  But,  inasmuch  as  it  is  a  goodly  thing  to  have 
set  a  good  tradition  of  whatever  kind,  so  civilisations  to  come,  civilisations 
in  which  little  trace  of  English  influence  can  be  found,  will  have  cause 
to  thank  England  and  the  makers  of  England.  In  its  day,  the  confeder- 
ation was  the  door  through  which  the  course  of  empire  fared  westward  : 
England  is,  perhaps,  but  the  door  for  a  larger  movement.     The  upholders 


THE  SERVICES   OF  THE  PORTS.  21 

of  oncoming  civilisations  have  little  time  and  less  inclination  to  look  back, 
to  remember.  So  the  services  of  the  Ports  have  been  forgotten.  But  if 
nations  and  if  cities  have  souls,  and  if  their  souls  have  after  their  deaths 
an  abiding  -  place,  they  are,  perhaps,  content  to  be  forgotten  —  content 
though  only  a  few,  a  very  few  of  those  who  love  the  temps  jadis,  look 
back  and  discern,  rather  dimly  though  with  goodwill,  that  the  proud, 
the  hurrying  -  onward,  the  forgetful,  and  the  colossal  of  that  to  -  day 
owe  a  meed  of  gratitude  to  these  forgotten  dead.  And,  though  there 
be  none,  not  even  one,  to  remember,  it  must  be  good  to  lie  beneath 
the  green  turf  and  to  remember  for  oneself — be  one  a  great  nation 
or  a  man  or  a  confederation  of  little  ports — that,  in  one's  day  and  after 
one's  lights,  one  did  good  work  for  a  little  time. 


22 


CHAPTER    11. 

HASTINGS   AND   ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD. 


HISTORIC. 


Of  all  the  Five  Ports  it  seems  fitting  to  treat  of  Hastings  first.  Through 
good  report  and  evil  she  has  maintained  her  right  to  the  Premiership  of 
the  Ports ;  she  was  perhaps  the  prototype  of  all  the  Ports.  To-day  she 
flourishes,  health-giving — in  older  days,  flourished,  protecting.  Like  many 
other  towns — like  us  all — it  has  had  its  moments  of  grandeur,  its  moments 
of  decay  and  despair. 

What  glory  it  had  in  times  before  us  the  sea  gave ;  what  the  sea 
gave  the  sea  took  away.  There  seem  to  have  been,  at  different  times, 
three  towns  of  Hastings — four  perhaps,  if  we  include  the  modern  lines  of 
brick.  The  sea  little  by  litde  ate  away  the  front  lines  of  each  town,  the 
houses,  as  it  were,  falling  in  behind  the  new  front.  Sometimes  the  towns- 
men fell  into  despair — went  into  exile.  Then  we  hear  that  the  French  or 
the  Spaniards  burnt  a  deserted  city.  For,  again  and  again,  what  the  sea 
spared,  the  men  from  across  the  sea  harried.  The  place  of  the  old  town 
of  all— whether  it  were  Saxon  or  Roman  or  British — is  utterly  unknown. 
Archaeologists  spend  pleasant  hours  in  building  up  fair  theories  anent  its 
site  :  spend  perhaps  unpleasant  nights  when  rivals  demolish  those  edifices. 
Except  perhaps  to  them,  the  matter  is  of  little  importance.  The  sea 
possesses  the  old  town,   the  breakers  hurry  over  it,   or  linger  to  dance 


EAST    HILL   AND    FISHING   TOWN.    HASTINGS 


fr    .     '■'Uis»>--'-^ 


mi 


HASTINGS  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  23 

in  the  sun.      It  lies  looking  upwards  to  the  air  through  the  translucent 
waters. 

History  is  silent  as  to  who  were  its  builders.  Archaeological  philolo- 
gists play  upon  the  names  of  Hasten,  a  Saxon  chieftain,  and  Haestingas,  a 
Sussex-Saxon  clan ;  but  declare  that  here  a  Roman  castle  stood,  the  old 
name  of  the  town  being  Heastenchester.  To  back  them  up  there  have 
been  found  in  the  town  Roman  pottery  and  traces  of  Roman  ironworks. 
The  Britons,  too,  are  alleged  to  have  here  fenced  in  the  land-approaches — 
the  "aditus  munitos  molibus  mirificis"  of  Cicero. 

These  wonderfully  made  earthworks  are  supposed  to  be  the  very  ones 
that  still  exist  on  the  East  and  Castle  Hills  of  the  town.  That  the  Britons 
had  a  town  here  seems  not  impossible.  They  were  dwellers  on  the  sea- 
verges  of  thick  woods,  and  at  one  time  the  forest  of  Andred  topped  the 
Fairlight  Hill.  British  coins — three  of  them  of  the  reign  of  Cymbeline — 
have  been  found  at  Pevensey ;  and  the  Minnis  Rock  on  Hastings  Castle 
Hill  is  supposed  to  have  served  the  Britons  as  a  place  of  worship.  A 
probably  British  burial-place  has  also  been  found  on  the  same  cliff.^  Of 
the  town  under  the  Romans  we  have  no  trace  left.  We  even  do  not 
know  what  its  name  may  have  been.  If,  as  Cole  and  others  think,  it 
was  the  Othona  of  the  Villare  Cantium,  it  must  have  been  a  town  of 
vast  importance  to  the  Count  of  the  Saxon  shore.^  Others  assert  that 
'Hastings  was  the  landing-place  of  Caesar,  or  that,  at  least,  he  landed  at 
Pevensey  and  marched  to  Hastings.  Be  that  as  it  may,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  Pevensey  was  a  place  of  great  importance  in  Roman  times.  It  is 
supposed  to  have  been  the  Anderida  which  QElle  of  Northumbria  destroyed 
after  the  departure  of  the  Romans. 

1  An  account  of  these  coins,  and  of  the  excava-  Othona   ilia  videatur,  in  qua  Fortensium  num- 

tions  at  Pevensey,  will  be  found  in  Roach  Smith's  erus  hoc  littus  ...  sub  Littoris  Saxonici  Comite 

'  Collectanea  Antiqua '  and  other  works  by  R.  S.  tueabatur.     Fieri  enim  potuit  ut  Saxones  nostri 

The  British  remains  at  Hastings  are  described  Germani,  qui  in  primis  consonantium,  pro  Othona 

in  Cole's  'Antiquities  of  Hastings.'  Hasteng    ohm   vocarint."  —  Camden,   Britannia, 

*  "Sin  autem  Britannicis  temporibus  floruerit,  ist  ed.,  p.  i6i. 


24  THE    CINQUE  PORTS. 

The  Romans  being  gone,  there  came  the  Saxons.  Under  them  Has- 
tings became  more  flourishing.  It  had  a  mint  of  its  own.  Coins  struck 
there  are  catalogued  by  Ruding  as  bearing  the  heads  of  Canute,  Hardi- 
canute,  and  the  Confessor.  Mr  Cole  thinks  that  the  destruction  of  the 
great  harbour  at  Anderida  accounts  for  the  sudden  prosperity  of  Hastings 
as  a  port  of  the  same  neighbourhood.  But  apart  from  the  fact  that  it 
flourished,  we  know  Httle  of  its  history,  of  its  ups  and  downs  under  Saxons 
or  Danes.  The  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle  tells  one  that  "the  men  of  Has- 
tings and  thereabout  fought  two  of  Sweins  ships  with  their  ships,  and  slew 
all  the  men  and  brought  the  ships  to  Sandwich  to  the  king."  This  was 
during  the  revolt  of  Godwin  against  the  Confessor.  Shortly  afterwards  the 
men  of  the  town  turned  their  coats,  and  sailed  with  Godwin  against  London 
and  the  king. 

But  it  was  under  the  Norman  kings  that  the  town  really  reached  its 
greatness.  The  Conqueror,  of  course,  landed  at  Pevensey.  They  preserve 
at  Hastings  the  stone  on  which  he  fell  on  landing,  on  which  he  dined,  or 
which  was  placed  over  the  dead  Harold.  The  stone  is  unchanging;  the 
stories  vary.  Were  one  an  archaeologist,  one  might  attempt  to  reconcile 
all  the  three  versions.  William,  we  are  told  by  tradition,  on  landing, 
slipped  and  fell,— grasping  the  land  and,  as  he  said,  taking  seisin  of  it. 
The  land  that  he  grasped  was  this  rock.  What  more  natural  than  that  he 
should  wish  to  dine  off  his  own  newly-seized  land  ?  and  what  more  natural, 
again,  than  that  he  should  wish  the  dead  Harold  held  down  by  the  very 
stone  that  had  welcomed  the  victor  } 

I  do  not  propose  to  give  a  detailed  account  of  the  battle  of  Hastings, 
nor  have  I  any  intention  of  approaching  the  thorny  subject  of  the  shield- 
wall. 

One  knows  that  Merlin  i  had  prophesied  the  overthrow  of  the  English 

'  "The  German  dragon  shall  hardly  get  to  his  the  decimation  from  Normandy  shall  hurt  him. 

holes  because  the  revenge  of  his  treason  shall  For  a  people   in  wood    and    iron    coats    shall 

overtake  him.     At   last   he   shall  flourish  for  a  come  and  revenge  upon  him  his  wickedness."— 

little  time  (as  Saxon  paramount  in  Britain),  but  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  Giles's  translation. 


HASTINGS  AND  ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD.  25 

by  the  Normans, — "  a  Norman  people  in  iron  coats  shall  lay  low  the  pride 
of  the  English," — that  before  the  battle  Harold  felt  confident,  and  William 
too.  One  knows — at  least  the  Norman  chroniclers  tell  us  so — that  the 
night  before  the  battle  the  Norman  spent  in  prayer,  the  English  in  wine- 
bibbing ;  that  the  English  cried  "Let  them  come!"  and  "Drink  to  me!" 
and  "  Out !  "—the  Normans,  "  Dex  aie  !  "  ("  God  help  us  !  ")  They  fought 
through  the  long  autumn  day  "  by  the  hoar  apple-tree,"  and,  presumably, 
the  better  man  won.  "  The  Duke  William,  in  his  pride,  where  the  banner 
had  stood,  had  his  own  standard  set  on  high.  His  barons  and  knights  and 
squires  cried  all  :  '  Never  man  so  rode  nor  fought,  nor  did  such  deeds  of 
arms.  Since  Roland  and  since  Oliver  such  a  knight  had  not  been  in 
land.' "  1 

There  was  a  vast  slaughter  of  men  on  both  sides.  "  The  dales  all 
around  sent  forth  a  gory  stream  which  increased  at  a  distance  to  the  size  of 
a  river.  How  great,  think  you,  must  have  been  the  slaughter  of  the  con- 
quered when  that  of  the  conquerors  is  reported  upon  the  lowest  com- 
putation to  have  exceeded  ten  thousand  ? "  ^  So  says  the  Battle  Abbey 
Chronicler. 

One  incident  of  the  battle  is  curiously  similar  to  one  of  another  famous 
and  hard-fought  field — Waterloo.  "  There  lay  between  the  hostile  armies 
a  certain  dreadful  precipice  caused  either  by  a  natural  chasm  of  the  earth  or 
by  some  convulsion  of  the  elements.  It  was  of  considerable  extent,  and, 
being  overgrown  with  bushes  or  brambles,  was  not  very  easily  seen,  and 
great  numbers  of  men — principally  Normans  in  pursuit  of  English — were 
suffocated  in  it;  for,  ignorant  of  the  danger,  as  they  were  running  in  a 


1  Wace.     Wace   is,  of  course,    not   the   most  the  number  of  Normans  engaged  in  the  battle 

accurate  of  describers  of  the  battle,  but  he  is  did    not    exceed    5000    (Sir    James     Ramsay's 

one  of  the  most  picturesque.     A  "Bibliography"  'Foundations    of    England').      Indeed,    taking 

of  the  subject  is  supphed  by  Mr  Round  to  the  into    account  the   difficulties   of   transport   and 

present  volume  (xlii.)  of  the  Sussex  Archffiological  victualling,  the  50,000  of  the  Chroniclers  seems 

Collection.  an  impossible  figure.     Monastic  licence  in  things 

'  According  to  the  latest  writers  on  the  subject,  of  the  sort  is  not  unknown. 


26  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

disorderly  manner,  they  fell  into  a  chasm,  and  were  fearfully  dashed  to 
pieces  and  slain.     And  the  Pit  from  this  deplorable  accident  is  still  called 

Malfosse." 

The  battle  did  not  take  place  for  some  time— for  nearly  a  month- 
after  the  Duke  of  Normandy's  landing.  Perhaps  the  dysentery  that  broke 
out  among  the  troops  hindered  his  movements ;  perhaps  he  was  waiting 
to  take  the  sense  of  the  country.  He  seems  to  have  begun  his  harryings 
not  until  he  learnt  that  the  country  favoured  Harold.  Immediately  after 
the  representation  of  William's  receiving  the  news  of  Harold's  approach, 
there  follows  in  the  Bayeux  tapestry  the  picture  of  a  house  burning  at 
Hastings.^ 

Harold  has  been  blamed  for  joining  battle  with  the  Normans  whilst 
the  country  was  still  sending  men  to  him — before  his  army  was  at  its  full 
strength.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  a  more  favourable  position 
than  that  occupied  by  him  at  Battle  would  have  been  difficult  to  find. 
It  commanded  the  only  passage  inland.  He  probably  wished  to  keep 
William  shut  up  in  the  triangular  space  of  sea- shore  and  marsh- land 
between  Hastings  and  Pevensey  until  reinforcements  arrived.  William, 
however,  forced  his  hand. 

After  the  battle  the  Conqueror  marched  away  inland,  having  built  a 
temporary  blockhouse  ^  at  Hastings.  This  wooden  castellum  in  course  of 
time  became  the  Norman  castle  from  which  Castle  Hill  takes  its  name. 
The  great  congeries  of  buildings  called  Pevensey  castle  also  contains  a 
large  amount  of  Norman  adaptive  work.     The  Conqueror  seems  to  have 

'  The    inscriptions    touching    Pevensey    and  Hie  domus  incenditur. 

Hastings  on  the  tapestry  are  as  follows: —  ^  Matthew  Paris:    "Apud   Hastings  ligneum 

Hie  Willelmus  Dux  in  magno  navigio  mare  agiliter     castrum     statuerit     Guilielmus     Con- 

transivit  et  venit  ad  Pevense.  questor."     Tradition  has  it  that  William  brought 

Hie  exeunt  caballi  de  Navibus.  his  wooden  castle  on  shipboard,  piecemeal  from 

Et  h.  milites  festinaverunt  Hestinga  et  cilum  Normandy.     The  French  certainly  did  the  same 

rapperentur.  thing  subsequently,  as  in  the  case  of  the  wooden 

Istejussit  ut  foderentur  castellum  ad  Hesteng.  walls   which   were   captured  by  Sandwich   men 

Hie  nuntiatum  est  Will°.  de  Haroldo.  when  they  took  a  couple  of  French  ships  in  1365. 


HASTINGS  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  27 

fortified  these  two  places  to  serve  as  safe  ports  for  his  entrances  and  exits. 

Both   Hastings  and  Pevensey  soon  recovered  from  the  spoHations  of  his 

mercenaries,  Hastings  being  the  larger  of  the  two.      Both  towns  possessed 

a  mint  until  the  time  of  Henry  I. 

What  was  the  size  of  Hastings  in  Norman  days  we  have  little  means 

of  knowing.  In  Domesday-book  mention  is  made  of  a  New  Burg  in  these 
parts.  Winchelsea  antiquarians  declare  that  this  was  Winchelsea — Has- 
tings calls  it  part  of  Hastings.  It  stood  in  the  manor  of  Rameslie  or  Brede, 
which  had  been  granted  to  the  Fecamp  Priors  by  the  Conqueror.  If  we 
call  the  New  Burg  part  of  Hastings,  the  whole  town  contained  68  burgesses, 
14  borderers,  100  salt-pits,  seven  acres  of  meadow,  and  only  two  hogs. 
Without  the  New  Burg  there  were  but  4  burgesses.  .  The  growth  of 
Pevensey  under  the  Conqueror  was  exceedingly  rapid.  In  1066  it  con- 
tained only  27  burgesses,  in  1086  as  many  as  109.  This  great  increase 
was  of  course  due  to  influxes  of  Normans.  Hastings  probably  grew  quite 
as  fast  as  the  other  town,  but  being  largely  owned  by  Churchmen  ^  its  royal 
rents  were  smaller.  It  is  to  the  favour  of  the  Conqueror,  or  of  one  of 
his  immediate  successors,  that  Hastings  owes  its  precedency  over  the 
other  Ports.  If  we  allow  that,  before  the  Conquest,  the  several  Ports 
were  not  joined  into  one  body,  it  must  follow  that  one  or  other  of  the 
Norman  kings  commenced  to  make  them  the  imperium  in  imperio  that 
they  subsequently  became,  and  that  he,  favouring  Hastings,  conferred  on 
it  the  leadership.  In  the  Confessor's,  and  probably  in  the  Conqueror's, 
times,  the  town  furnished  as  many  ships  as  Dover — 21 — and  more  than 
the  joint  contributions  of  Hythe,  Sandwich,  and  Romney — 15. 

These,  in  fact,  were  the  grand  days  for  Hastings.  The  Ports  as  a 
rule  flourished  in  the  light  of  the  king's  smile — found  life  too  hard  in  the 
shade.     Thus  Hastings  flourished  in  Norman  days,  and  the  privileges  that 

1  This,  though  the  usual  and  locally  accepted  of  Hastings  were  "  King's  men  " ;  that  from  this 
theory,  is  very  debatable.  Mr  Round  (Feudal  circumstance  arose  the  pre-eminence  of  Hastings 
England)  says  that  the  greater  part  of  the  men      among  the  Ports.     See  Appendix. 


28  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

it  gained  then  it  never  lost  in  days  of  adversity.  The  Ports  as  a  whole 
were  too  jealous  of  their  rights  to  curtail  those  of  any  of  their  number  how- 
ever low  she  might  have  sunk.  It  was  not  until  quite  lately — in  1861  — 
that  Dover  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  wrest  the  supremacy  from  the 
Sussex  Port.^ 

The  town  at  this  time  probably  possessed  a  fine  harbour  at  the  mouth 
of  a  river,  but  harbour  and  river  have  now  disappeared.  The  sea,  which 
ruined  so  many  of  the  other  Ports  by  filling  up  their  harbours,  ruined 
Hastings  by  eating  away  the  land  through  which  the  harbour  mouth  ran. 
The  sea,  in  this  part,  seems  to  have  hated  all  creeks,  to  have  wished  to 
smooth  out  the  wrinkles  of  the  sea-shore.  Hastings  struggled  as  desper- 
ately to  preserve  its  harbour  as  did  the  other  Ports,  and  the  process  of 
decay  was  a  fairly  gradual  one. 

The  raising  of  the  Conqueror's  Abbey  at  Battle  probably  was  one  of 
the  causes  of  the  town's  prosperity.  The  building  largely  consisted  of 
Caen  stone  which  the  Conqueror  had  imported.  This  and  the  traffic  of 
monks  between  England  and  Normandy  made  the  Port  thrive.  In  early 
Saxon  times  close  ties  had  obtained  between  the  men  of  the  Ports  and 
those  of  the  towns  of  the  Seine.  These  are  said,  on  very  dubious 
authority,  however,  to  have  been  fostered  by  the  monks  of  St  Denis, 
who  in  the  time  of  Charlemagne  had  had  rights  over  the  harbours  of 
Hastings  and  Pevensey.  These  rights  the  monks  had  gradually  lost,  but, 
under  the  lordship  of  the  Comtes  d'Eu  and  of  the  Abbots  of  Fdcamp, 
Hastings  was  once  again  united  with  the  towns  in  France.^ 

Not  content  with  harbouring  ships,  Hastings  built  them  ;  ships  of  war, 

1  The  subject  was  thrashed  out  with  some  acri-  ^  A  rather   amusing   correspondence  between 

mony.     The  Hastings  Corporation  presented  a  the  mayors   of  St   Valery   sur   Somme   and   of 

petition  in  favour  of  their  rights  (B.  M.  9930.  g.g.  Hastings   still   exists.      The   authorities   of  the 

15),  and  a  similar  one  on  behalf  of  Dover  was  little  Norman  town,  from  which  the  Conqueror 

prepared  by  Mr  Knocker.     Dover,  however,  had  finally  set  sail  for  England,  conceived  the  idea 

no  case  at  all,  almost  the  only  authority  in  its  that  commercial  intercourse  between  the  towns 

favour  being  Harris — the  quite  inaccurate  his-  might  be  re-established  in  1855.    They  rehearsed 

torian  of  Kent.  the  advantages  of  their  position,   the  ease  of 


HASTINGS  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  29 

of  trade,  royal  long-boats  and  royal  yachts  for  the  three  Norman  kings. 
"  Esnetka  mea  de  Hastings,"  ("  my  Hastings  yacht"),  Henry  I.  writes  in  an 
extant  letter.  The  great  forest  of  Andred  afforded  wood  for  the  purpose 
of  the  shipwright.  Most  of  the  Sussex  Ports  then  found  ample  employ- 
ment for  the  shipwright  —  several  still  do  so.  Moreover  the  goodly 
harbours  of  the  neighbourhood  sheltered  what  ships  the  king  of  the  time 
possessed. 

These  were  its  sources  of  wealth.  For  defence  it  boasted  its  castle, 
which  had  taken  the  place  of  the  wooden  structure  of  Conquest  year.  In 
later  times  walls  were  built  to  defend  the  town  against  the  sea  and  other 
foes.  The  walls,  however,  served  little,  and  almost  entirely  vanished  in  the 
great  gales  of  the  two  succeeding  centuries.  It  is  not  as  a  walled  town 
that  the  place  was  noteworthy.  It  was  of  the  type  that  relied  not  on  its 
own  impregnability  but  on  that  of  a  central  hold.  In  the  Conqueror's 
time  and  during  the  succeeding  reigns  the  town  was  in  the  charge  of 
the  great  feudal  lords  of  Eu.  With  the  passing  of  them  and  of  the 
system  that  they  represented,  its  day  came  to  an  end  ;  it  fell  into  dis- 
repair, into  ruin. 

Under  the  Red  King,  however,  the  castle  was  in  the  full  flush  of  its 
life.  It  served  as  a  royal  palace  when,  in  1093,  'he  king's  passage  over-seas 
was  delayed  for  a  month  by  adverse  winds.  Rufus  spent  his  time  in 
feasting,  in  adjusting  clerical  differences,  in  witnessing  the  consecration 
of  a  bishop.  He  returned  in  1095  to  assist  at  the  dedication  of  the 
Abbey  of  Battle.  "  On  the  appointed  day  he  came  to  this  place  with  an 
innumerable  train  of  his  barons  and  of  the  common  people."  The  Abbey 
was,  by  the  great  Anselm  of  Canterbury,  dedicated  "to  the  honour  of 

communication  with  Paris,  the  fineness  of  their  with  London,  and  that  proposals  are  on  foot  for 
new  harbour  at  Pte.  Hourdel,  and  so  on,  and  so  the  construction  of  a  new  harbour  in  the  town, 
on.  The  mayor  of  Hastings  directs  the  town  There  the  matter  rested.  Proposals  are  still  on 
clerk  to  reply  that  they  too  are  anxious  for  a  foot  for  the  building  of  a  harbour — they  have 
commercial  alliance,  that  the  town  of  Hastings  been  at  any  time  during  the  present  century- 
has  been  newly  put  in  railway  communication  and  St  Valery  is  as  far  away  as  ever. 


30  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

the  holy  and  undivided  Trinity,  the  Blessed  Mary,   ever  Virgin,  and  to 
Christ's  Confessor,  St  Martin." 

From  this  time  forward  the  story  of  Hastings  is  one  of  change  and 
decay.  Mr  Cole  says  that  the  decadence  of  the  town  dated  from  the 
reign  of  Stephen.  Nevertheless  in  this  reign  the  men  and  ships  of 
Hastings  earned  the  thanks  of  Christendom  during  the  crusade  that 
deprived  the  Moors  of  the  kingdom  of  Portugal.  At  the  taking  of  Lisbon, 
in  the  year  of  grace  1147,  the  ships  of  the  Five  Ports,  headed  by  those 
of  Hastings,  played  the  foremost  part.  Alfonso,  the  first  Christian  king 
of  Portugal,  showed  his  sense  of  gratitude  by  making  a  chaplain  of  the 
Hastings  fleet  first  Bishop  of  Lisbon. 

This  was  nearly  the  last  and  greatest  glory  of  the  town.  Stephen 
had  inherited  none  of  the  Conqueror's  traditions,  and  William's  descendant, 
the  Empress  Maud,  had  little  power  in  the  land.  The  struggle  between 
king  and  empress,  as  far  as  it  affected  the  Ports,  took  place  round  Dover ; 
Henry  H.  cared  little  for  the  Ports  as  a  whole,  and  Richard  and  John, 
although  fully  alive  to  their  importance,  did  nothing  to  save  Hastings. 

The  disastrous  close  of  Lackland's  disastrous  reign  saw  Hastings 
occupied  by  Lewis  of  France,  into  whose  hands  it  fell  without  a 
struggle. 

The  Angevin  kings  gradually  transferred  their  royal  affections  to 
Winchelsea,  one  of  the  contributory  members  of  the  Port  of  Hastings 
itself.  Henry  HI.  visited  Winchelsea,  but  seems  to  have  ignored  the 
very  existence  of  its  head  port.  During  the  reign  of  Edward  L,  although 
the  town  suffered  as  much  as  its  members,  the  king  did  not  come  to  its 
aid.  Possibly  he  despised  it  for  its  measure  of  cowardice  at  the  end  of 
the  Barons'  war.  During  that  long  struggle  it  behaved  well  enough, 
and  supported  the  cause  of  the  Constitution  against  the  Crown.  But,  on 
the  final  defeat  of  De  Montford,  its  burgesses  forwarded  to  the  king 
a  humble  apology— or  should  we  say  an  egregious  monument  of  casu- 
istry ?—"  To  their  most  excellent  Lord,"  it  ran,   "and  most  dear  Lord, 


HASTINGS  AND  ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD.  31 

the  most  illustrious  King  of  England,  his  liege  and  faithful  barons  of 
Hastings,  greeting,  in  the  Saviour  of  all,  and  prompt  and  ready  willing- 
ness to  obey  in  all  things,  even  to  the  division  of  soul  and  body,  with 
all  subjection,  reverence,  and  honour.  We  have  thought  it  right  to 
declare  by  these  letters,  to  the  excellence  of  your  Royal  Majesty,  that 
extreme  grief  of  heart,  and  anguish  beyond  measure,  have  now  for  a 
long  time  past  affected  all  and  each  of  us,  inasmuch  as  we  have  neither 
been  able  to  approach  the  bodily  presence  of  your  loyal  clemency  during 
the  delay  of  your  long  sojourn  in  remote  parts,  nor  to  direct  sure  messengers 
in  order  to  ascertain  the  certainty  of  the  good  condition  of  your  person, 
for  the  sake  of  both  the  love  and  honour  of  which  we  are  ready  to  be 
crowned  with  a  victorious  death,  if  necessary.  Moreover,  let  your  Royal 
excellence  take  notice  that  we  have,  up  to  this  time,  guarded  your  town 
of  Hastings  for  your  use  and  that  of  your  heirs,  and  at  your  good 
pleasure  shall  guard  it  for  ever,  although  anything  of  the  contrary  may 
have  been  suggested  to  your  pious  ears  by  our  enemies  against  us.  To 
which  enemies,  indeed,  do  not  give  credence,  since  they  are  not  to  be 
believed  in  anything ;  and  although  some  persons,  without  the  assent 
of  our  community,  may  have  offended  your  Royal  Majesty,  we  have 
at  no  time  adopted  them  nor  their  evil  deeds,  but,  even  in  the  presence 
of  your  Royal  Majesty,  have  disapproved  and  disavowed  them  and  their 
evil  works,  and  have  never  ceased  to  disapprove  them.  Wherefore,  we 
humbly  implore  the  clemency  of  your  Royal  Majesty.  May  the  ex- 
cellence of  your  Royal  Majesty  be  in  health,  and  flourish  to  endless 
time ! "  ^ 

Rye,  it  is  true,  sent  a  precisely  similar  apology — but  Rye  was  never 
unprofitably  courageous.  Winchelsea,  however,  rebelled  boldly  and  took 
its  punishment  as  we  shall  see. 

Whether  or  no  Edward  admired  its  boldness,  he  favoured  Winchelsea 
and  left  its  head  port  to  struggle  with  the  sea  as  best  it  could.     The  storm 

1  Sussex  Arch.  Coll.,  vol.  iv.  pp.  no,  in. 


32  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

that  destroyed  old  Winchelsea  must  have  proved  as  fatal  to  Hastings. ^ 
Its  cliffs  were  gnawed  away,  the  castle's  chapel  fell  into  the  sea:  "quod 
per  frequenter  maris  indundationes  pro  majore  parte  devastatur,"  write 
the  Dean  and  Chapter  in  1229.  Seven  years  afterwards  the  church  of 
St  Clement's  had  to  be  abandoned  and  rebuilt  on  another  site.  One 
hears  of  disasters  to  the  churches  because  the  Religious  were  clamorous, 
and  sought  new  lands  on  which  to  build.  Of  the  silent  woe  of  the  poorer 
sort  we  hear  nothing  at  all.     Yet  it  must  have  been  great  enough. 

The  sea  has  gone  on  attacking  Hastings  until  well  into  the  present 
century.  When  the  Queen  was  Princess  Victoria  the  sea  washed  away 
the  road  between  the  town  and  St  Leonards.  "The  enthusiastic  towns- 
men," we  are  told,  "dragged  the  carriage  of  the  Princess  over  the  White 
Rock."  The  adventure  sounds  unpleasant — harrowing  even,  for  young 
"  Royallity,"  as  we  say  in  these  parts. 

To  help  the  town  to  provide  its  quota  of  ships,  Seaford,  Pevensey, 
and  other  towns  in  Sussex  and  Kent  were  added  to  its  number  of  con- 
tributory members.  Seaford  must  have  been  added  about  1229  or  earlier 
— perhaps  after  the  storm  that  destroyed  the  chapel  on  Castle  Hill. 

Both  members  have  at  different  times  been  noteworthy  and  flourishing 
towns.  Until  1638  Seaford  had  a  fine  harbour — the  mouth  of  the  Ouse — 
but  at  that  date  the  river  suddenly  changed  its  course  and  ran  to  the  sea 


^  Storms  of  prodigious  violence  seem  to  have  great  tempest  in   1249;   in  1269,  "the  ryuer  of 

been  of  frequent  occurrence  all  along  this  coast  Thamys   was    so    hard  frosen   fro   the   feast   of 

up  till  quite  late  days.     Some  of  the  happenings  St   Andrew   untill   Candlemas  that    .    .    .    mer- 

recorded  by  early  chroniclers  would  be  hardly  chaundises  was  caryed  from  Sandwich  and  other 

credible  were  it  not  for  the  confirmation  afforded  Hauens   to    London   by  Land";    in   1280  there 

by  the  destruction  of  towns  like  Hastings  and  was  a  tremendous  snowfall  followed  by  floods ; 

Winchelsea.       Thus,    in    1233,   a    thunderstorm  and  in  1288,  "Grate  hayle  fel  in  England  this 

continued  without  ceasing  for  fifteen  days.     In  present  yere,  and  after  that  ensued  so  continual 

1230  there  were  two  earthquakes,  and  the  sea  rayne  that  the  yeere  following  wheate  was  sold 

flowed    twice    without    ebbing.      According    to  for    xl.    shillings    a    quarter"  — which,    making 

Richard  Grafton's  smaller  chronicle  there  were  allowances   for   the  change  in  value  of  money, 

incredibly  violent  tempests  and  earthquakes  in  was   more   than   twenty  times   its   price   at   the 

1232,   a    terrible   earthquake    in    1246,   another  present  day. 


HASTINGS  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  33 

at  Newhaven.  It  is  said  to  have  had  five  churches,  and  is  the  only  one 
of  the  lesser  members  of  the  V.  Ports  that  returned  members  to  Parlia- 
ment It  retained  its  privileges  until  quite  a  late  day ;  had,  like  all  the 
other  ports,  to  undergo  the  assaults  of  the  French  and  the  sea,  and  has 
finally  become  a  watering-place.  As  much  may  be  said  of  Eastbourne, 
which,  however,  was  not  a  corporate  member,  and  never  seems  to  have 
attained  to  any  consideration  until  watering-place  days. 

The  incorporation  of  places  like  Seaford  and  Pevensey,  which  in 
after  years  became  mere  hamlets,  seems  to  have  been  the  cause  of 
Sussex's  reputation  for  stupidity.^  Its  mayors  and  jurats  were  frequently 
mere  cottagers,  and  they  held  their  courts  and  pronounced  sentences  of 
a  farcical  nature  with  admirable  gravity.  Pevensey  produced  the  famous 
Andrew  Borde  —  the  original  Merry  Andrew.  This  Sussex  worthy 
immortalised  his  native  place  under  the  name  of  Gotham.  Every  one 
has  heard  of  the  wise  men  of  Gotham,  who  essayed  to  execute  an 
eel  by  drowning,  and  perpetrated  hundreds  of  similar  oddities.  Of 
them  it  is  recorded  that  their  grand  jury  found  a  man  guilty  of 
manslaughter  for  stealing  a  pair  of  leather  breeches.  This  finding 
may  be  apocryphal,  but  the  exceedingly  well-preserved  municipal  records 
of  Seaford  contain  findings  almost  as  whimsical.     As  thus  :■ — 

"  i2)ik  Eliz. — We  finde  Thomas  Woman's  wife  was  sacy  upon  the 
witness,  but  she  sayght  hir  beans  and  pease  were  spillde." 

"  \']th  Jas.  I. — We  find  Cooper's  wife  guilty  of  making  discord  between 
neighbours." 

Although,  aided  by  the  Wise  Men  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  Ancient 
towns,  Hastings  managed  to  pay  its  way  as  far  as  the  ships  and  the 
fifteenth  were  concerned,  it  gradually  lost  all  vigour  of  life.  Whenever 
the  French  or  the  Spaniards  or  the  Scots  chose  to  attack  it,  they  found 

1  Sussex  men  are  called  by  their  detractors  silliness  with  his  mother's  milk,  and  has  been 
"  Sussex  dolts."  In  Kent  one  still  hears  said  :  silly  ever  since."  I  don't  know,  however,  what 
"  Oh,  he  comes  from   Sussex.      He  sucked  in      Sussex  has  to  say  of  the  man  of  Kent. 


34  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

it  an  easy  prey.  They  seem,  indeed,  only  to  have  thought  it  worthy  of 
attack  as  a  pis  alter  when  they  had  been  beaten  off  by  Rye  or  Winchelsea. 
Thus  in  1238  they  "frightened  away  the  inhabitants  and  burnt  the  town" 
on  their  way  from  the  sacking  of  Rye  to  the  occupation  of  the  Isle  of 
Wight. 

By  1544  the  town  had  sunk  so  low  that  Seaford,  its  quondam  member, 
was  by  Henry  VIII.  made  an  equal  corporation,  with  bailiff  and  barons,  in 
return  for  weightier  contributions.  Almost  immediately  after  its  apotheosis, 
Seaford  received  its  baptism  of  fire.  A  French  marauding  force  under 
Claude  d'Annehault  landed  near  the  town,  but  was  repelled  by  the  inhabi- 
tants under  Sir  Nicholas  Pelham.  This  was  practically  the  last  of  the 
piratical  cross-channel  expeditions  of  the  kind,  and  its  defeat  took  place 
appropriately  enough  at  the  last  town  to  earn  Five  Port  honours.  Before 
this  date,  Henry  VIII.  had  selected  Seaford  as  a  fit  locality  for  one  of  the 
many  castles  that  he  built  along  the  coast. 

In  Elizabeth's  time  Hastings  made  another  struggle  for  life,  built  two 
piers,  and  so  on.  But  these  seem  to  have  done  little  for  the  town.  It  is 
not  even  mentioned  by  name  in  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  '  Discourse  of  Sea- 
ports,' nor  does  it  figure  in  any  of  the  myriad  discoverable  pamphlets 
putting  forth  plans  for  the  regeneration  of  the  navy  that  saw  the  light 
from  the  sixteenth  to  the  nineteenth  centuries.  Nevertheless,  it  was  in 
the  reign  of  Elizabeth — in  Armada  year — that  the  town  received  the 
final  honour  of  incorporation  under  a  mayor.  One  supposes  that  this 
advancement  was  more  in  the  nature  of  an  inducement  to  a  final  struggle 
with  the  prdcieuse  ridicule  called  Fate  than  in  recognition  of  the  size  or 
actual  importance  of  the  town.  The  Virgin  Queen,  a  certain  parsimonious- 
ness  apart,  made  vigorous  efforts  to  re-establish  the  naval  status  of  the 
realm.  Incidentally  she  essayed  in  vain  to  resuscitate  the  glories  of  the 
Five  Ports  and  of  other  decayed  ports  of  the  kingdom,  witness  the  already 
cited  'Discourse  of  Seaports.'  Thus  we  may  regard  the  promotion  of 
Hastings  as  a  bribe;  perhaps  as  a  reward  for  services  rendered   ao-ainst 


HASTINGS  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  35 

the  Armada.  The  charter  of  Elizabeth  also  made  the  town  owner  of 
the  beach  of  stones,  which  had  a  value  of  its  own,  and  of  a  quantity  of 
what,  perhaps,  she  hoped  would  become  building  sites  in  a  rejuvenated 
town. 

In  return  the  townsmen  built  the  two  stades,  built  them  and  saw 
them  battered  to  pieces  by  the  winter  storms  of  a  century  or  so.  Accord- 
ing to  one  account,  "  Queen  Elizabeth  granted  a  contribution  towards  the 
making  a  new  harbour,  which  was  begun ;  but  the  contribution  was 
quickly  converted  into  private  purses  and  the  public  good  neglected." 
In  1804  the  remains  of  one  of  the  piers  were  still  to  be  seen  at  low 
water.  It  appears  to  have  been  built  of  timber  on  a  foundation  of 
huge  rocks.  Hastings,  in  fact,  passed  out  of  history  with  Henry  I., 
but  continued  unceasingly  the  attempt  to  struggle  into  life  again.  It 
had  to  stand  by,  to  be  a  witness  of  the  warlike  haps  of  succeeding 
centuries.  It  saw  French  fleets  sail  slowly  up  or  down  the  Channel. 
Dutch  fleets  seek  a  flying  English  foe.  From  its  position  it  was  fated 
to  witness  only  the  more  mortifying  of  England's  encounters.  It  had 
to  suffer  when  De  Witt  swept  the  southern  shores  of  the  country,  to 
suffer  when  the  French  under  Louis  XIV.  were  masters  of  the  Channel. 
Jeake  tells  us  that  in  1690  the  French  supporters  of  the  last  Stewart 
king  landed  at  Hastings,  fired  on  Hastings  in  passing,  killing-  some  and 
w^ounding  others.  One  of  the  cannon-balls  of  that  firing  is  still  to  be  seen 
in  the  tower  walls  of  St  Clement's  church.^  It  must  have  been  mortifying 
to  the  town  to  have  heard  the  cannonading  at  Beachy  Head  a  few  days 

1  I  give  a  fuller  account  of  this  transaction  year  before.  Thus,  in  1690,  the  Bishop  of  Chi- 
in  my  chapter  on  Rye.  Lower  in  his  History  Chester  was  unable  to  hold  a  confirmation  service 
of  Sussex  says  that  the  cannon  -  balls  at  St  because  the  churches  in  Hastings  were  full  of 
Clement's  were  fired  in  an  attack  made  by  a  soldiers.  Of  Lord  Torrington,  the  admiral  of  the 
joint  French  and  Dutch  fleet  in  1691.  This  battle  at  Beachy  Head,  Captain  Hozier  says  that 
is  impossible,  the  Dutch  being  the  allies  of  the  he  was  not  to  blame  for  attempting  to  save  his 
English  at  that  date.  I  have  not  been  able  to  fleet  by  retreat.  Torrington  was  tried  by  court- 
find  any  traces  of  this  second  attack,  although  martial  and  acquitted  ;  but  the  verdict  was  a 
there   are   plenty  of   accounts   of   the    one    the  political  one,  intended  to  irritate  Dutch  William. 


36  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

after,  and  to  learn  that  the  EngHsh  ingloriously  fled  from  the  fight,  leaving 
their  Dutch  allies  to  be  overwhelmed. 

Hastings  nearly  saw  a  historic  evasion — one  that  the  hand  of  Fate  wrote 
down  instead  a  might-have-been.  Charles  I.,  a  prisoner  in  Carisbrooke, 
had  for  a  time  a  body-servant,  Ashburnham,  whom  the  Parliamentarians 
removed.  Ashburnham,  returning  to  his  home  near  Hastings,  received 
a  letter  from  Carisbrooke  bidding  him  have  in  readiness  a  vessel  to 
carry  the  king  over -seas.  Ashburnham  got  ready  the  ship,  which  lay 
off  Hastings  for  some  three  weeks ;  but  at  the  end  of  that  time  news 
came  from  the  luckless  king.  Some  of  his  jailers  were  not  sufficiently 
complaisant,  could  not  be  bribed  ;  Charles  would  not  trust  those  that  had 
been  bribed — Charles,  one  must  remember,  would  trust  no  one  sufficiently : 
the  matter  fell  through.  Hastings  did  not  witness  the  memorable  event. 
Instead,  at  Ashburnham  House,  near  Battle,  are  preserved  the  blood- 
stained relics  of  a  martyr,  the  clothes  that  Charles  wore  when  the 
axe  fell. 

Hastings  saw  little  of  the  Civil  War.  One  hears  that  "  on  Sunday 
morning,  being  the  9th  of  July  1643,  in  time  of  Divine  service.  Colonel 
Morley,  the  crooked  rebel  of  Sussex,  came  towards  Hasting,  one  of  the 
Cinque  Ports,  but  in  his  march  being  discovered,  presently  notice  was 
given  to  Mr  Hinson,  Curate  of  All  Saints',  who,  knowing  that  one  end 
of  the  Colonel's  Sabbath-day's  journey  was  to  apprehend  him,  was  com- 
pelled to  break  off  Divine  service  in  the  midst,  and  fly  into  a  wood 
near  at  hand,  there  to  hide  himself.  The  Colonel  being  entered  the 
town,  scattered  the  body  of  his  horse  into  several  parts  to  intercept  all 
passages  out  of  the  town,  and  having  secured  the  parts,  he  summons 
the  Mayor  and  Jurats,  and  demands  the  arms  of  the  town,  to  which 
he  found  ready  obedience;  for  presently  the  Mayor  and  Jurats  sent 
their  servants  to  command  all  the  inhabitants  to  deliver  up  their  arms, 
which  was  done  accordingly;  and  one  of  the  Jurats,  Fray  by  name, 
furnished  the  Colonel  with  a  waggon.     He  sent  them  away  to  Battell, 


HASTINGS  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  37 

being  a  town  in  Sussex,  some  five  miles  from  Hasting.  That  night 
some  soldiers  lay  in  the  church  where  Mr  Hinson  officiated,  where 
one  Wicker,  a  common  soldier,  getting  up  into  the  pulpit,  preached  unto 
his  fellows ;  and  to  show  the  fruits  of  so  good  doctrine,  going  out  of 
the  church,  either  the  preacher  or  one  of  his  auditory  stole  away  the 
surpless."^  For  the  rest,  the  subsequent  history  of  Hastings,  is  mere 
matter  of  gossip. 

In  1645  the  Hastings  contingent  of  the  Sussex  clubmen  gave  much 
trouble  to  both  parties  of  the  realm.  They  were  a  band  of  desperate 
men,  ruined  by  the  wars,  who  murdered  solitary  Cavaliers  and  Cropheads 
with  impartial  club.  In  1744  the  whole  county  was  alarmed  by  the 
appearance  in  the  Forest  of  St  Leonard's  of  a  vast  serpent,  who  killed 
men  and  beasts  with  his  poisoned  breath.  Amongst  others  a  Hastings 
cobbler  is  said  to  have  met  his  end  whilst  passing  at  a  hundred  yards' 
distance  from  this  monster's  roadside  tree.  In  1754  a  Dutch  ship  of  war 
came  ashore  between  Hastings  and  Bexhill.  Her  crew  had  been  over- 
mastered by  the  convicts  that  she  carried.  These  latter  escaped  inshore, 
gave  some  trouble,  and  caused  much  alarm  to  the  local  authorities.  Fright- 
ful wrecks  were  of  constant  occurrence  along  the  whole  coast  as  far  as 
Beachy  Head.  On  one  occasion  a  whole  convoy  of  merchant  vessels  and 
their  attendant  man-of-war  were  utterly  destroyed  on  the  Head  itself.  A 
famous  vicar  of  East  Dean  was  so  touched  by  the  suffering  that  the  Head 
cost,  that  he  had  a  cavern,  communicating  with  the  land  above  by  a 
staircase,  carved  out  of  the  cliff  on  the  sea-shore.  Here  he  hung  up  a 
lantern  on  stormy  nights  and  waited  for  mariners  to  come  ashore.  His 
parishioners  and  those  of  the  neighbouring  cures  of  souls  are  said  to  have 
rejoiced  exceedingly  when  a  French  privateer,  running  atilt  against  the 
cliff,  completely  filled  up  Parson  Darby's  Hole. 

The  coastmen  seem  to  have  been  wreckers  to  a  man.  They  hung 
out  misleading  signals  at  night,   murdered  shipwrecked   men,   plundered 

'  Mercurius  Rusticus. 


38  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

their  corpses  and  the  vessels  from  which  they  came.  Possibly  the  fact 
that  the  Ports  had  from  time  immemorial  been  "wreck-free," — that  is  to 
say,  had  a  right  to  the  goods  of  vessels  wrecked  upon  their  shores — 
had  helped  the  portsmen  of  these  parts  to  form  habits  of  this  sort ;  to 
aid  the  hand  of  Providence.  "To  this  day,"  writes  the  historian  of 
Winchelsea,  "  when  the  boats  of  Winchelsea  or  Hastings  enter  some  of 
our  western  ports,  a  hatchet  is  held  up  to  them  as  a  sign  of  opprobrium 
for  their  ancestors'  conduct ;  conduct  not  altogether  unknown  in  later 
times,  if  report  speaks  truly." 

The  last  war  with  France  found  Hastings  in  a  state  of  patriotic 
excitement.  The  following  sublime  account  of  the  preparations  made 
to  resist  Napoleon  occurs  in  Moss's  History  of  the  town  :  "  With  the 
spirit  that  animated  the  rest  of  the  kingdom,  their  Yeomanry  and 
Fencibles  were  embodied  and  trained  and  exercised  in  arms.  Prompt 
and  ready,  they  were  constantly  and  cheerfully  at  their  posts,  fully 
prepared  to  act  against  the  invaders  of  their  lands,  and  willing  in  the 
extremity  to  lay  down  their  lives  in  defence  of  their  laws,  their  country, 
and  their  homes."     They  were  called  to  do  little  against  the  invaders. 

In  1796  the  crew  of  a  French  privateer  attempted  to  cut  out  a 
vessel  laden  with  lime  that  lay  up  against  the  Stade.  The  French 
were,  however,  beaten  off  by  the  Hastings  fishermen,  and  their  landing 
party  made  prisoners.  In  1803  the  nth  Light  Dragoons  garrisoned 
the  place;  in  1804  temporary  barracks  for  200  men  were  erected. 
Altogether  1200  men  were  quartered  in  the  neighbouring  towns.  They 
were  commanded  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  "He  resided  at  Hastings 
House,  where  he  took  up  his  abode  with  his  bride  on  the  very  day  of 
their  marriage." 

Hastings  seems  at  this  time  to  have  been  a  moderately  prosperous 
town.  It  built  ships.  In  1804  a  man  called  Hamilton  had  a  shipyard 
on  the  Priory  Ground.  "A  sloop  of  war  is  at  present  on  the  stocks, 
and  a  brig  of  14  guns  will  shortly  be  set  up.    ...    A  great  number  of 


HASTINGS  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  39 

fishing-boats,  long-boats,  &c.,  are  also  built  in  this  town,  the  boat-builders 
of  which  are  esteemed  famous." 

Besides  these  the  town  still  had  a  considerable  trade  in  iron.  Sussex 
and  Weald  iron  had  for  many  centuries  been  famous  the  world  over. 
The  railings  round  St  Paul's  are  Sussex  made ;  and  in  the  notes  to  an 
early  eighteenth  -  century  map  of  Sussex,  the  trade  of  Rye  is  said  to 
be  in  "wool,  hops,  timber,  cannon,  kettles,  and  chimney-backs"  —  a 
list  which  suggests  '  Alice  in  Wonderland.'  Hastings  also  exported 
wool  and  planks,  as  well  as  lime,  which  last  was  brought  from  quarries 
near  Eastbourne  to  be  burnt  in  Hastings.^  The  cause  assigned  by  the 
Hastings  inhabitant  for  the  decay  of  the  iron  trade  is  "  that  the  supply 
of  wood  for  heating  the  furnaces  has  failed  considerably  within  these 
few  years.  For  since  hop  -  planting  is  become  so  principal  a  branch 
of  the  farmer's  system,  the  woods  that  are  now  remaining  are  chiefly 
reserved  for  hop-poles."  Were  this  all  the  matter,  now  that  hops  are 
being  everywhere  grubbed,  the  Sussex  iron  -  trade  might  live  again. 
But     .     .     . 

The  renaissance  of  Hastings  came  with  the  growth  of  sea-watering- 
places  towards  the  end  of  the  last  century.  At  that  time  it  contained 
only  two  straggling  streets  and  a  population  of  a  thousand  or  so.  It  is 
now  a  town  of  vast  size  and  great  floating  population,  indeed  the  whole 
of  the  neighbouring  coast  is  strung  with  watering-place  pearls  of  varying 
size.  The  moderns  do  not  seem  to  have  been  the  first  to  have  discovered 
the  delights  of  the  adjacent  climates,  for  at  Seaford  and  in  other  places 
the  remains  of  the  lordly  pleasure-houses  of  the  Romans  have  been  found. 

1  The  harbour  resources  of  the  town  were  by  thirteen  coasting  vessels  ranging  from  15  to  36 

this  time  Umited  to  the  Stade,  a  stone  incline  tons    burthen;    nine    privateers,    each    carrying 

up  which  sloops  and  cutters  were  dragged  by  two    i8-pounders ;    and    11    fishing-boats,  each 

capstans   manned   by  horses.      "  Vessels   of  50  fitted  with  a   12-lb.   carronade.     The  privateers 

to    100    tons    burthen    are    moved   in   this   way  were    under    the    command    of    Captain    Isaac 

with   a  facihty  and   expedition  which  is  some-  Schomberg,    the    fishing -boats    were    probably 

thing  wonderful,"  says  the  Hastings  Guide,  by  members  of  Pitt's  fleet  of  Cinque  Port  luggers, 
an  Inhabitant,   1804.    Hastings  then   possessed 


40  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

The  sort  of  thing  that  happened  on  the  discovery  of  Hastings  is  thus 
described  by  the  irrepressible  Theodore  Hook :  "  From  the  medita- 
tion in  which  he  was  absorbed,  Jack  was  roused  upon  his  arrival  at  that 
splendid  creation  of  modern  art  and  industry,  St  Leonards,  which 
perhaps  affords  one  of  the  most  beautiful  proofs  of  individual  taste, 
judgment,  and  perseverance  that  our  nation  exhibits.  Under  the  super- 
intendence of  Mr  Burton  a  desert  has  become  a  thickly  peopled  town. 
Buildings  of  an  extensive  nature  and  most  elegant  character  rear  their 
heads  where  but  lately  the  barren  cliffs  presented  their  sandy  fronts 
to  the  storm  and  wave,  and  rippling  streams  and  hanging  groves 
adorn  the  valley  which  a  few  years  since  was  a  sterile  and  shrubless 
ravine."  ^ 

Byron  perhaps  knew  more  of  how  to  enjoy  life  than  did  Mr  Jack 
Bragg.  He  lived  when  the  world  was  a  little  younger,  it  is  true,  and 
when  it  was  not  quite  so  full  of  Mr  Burtons  as  it  is  to-day.  "  I  have 
been  renewing  my  acquaintance  with  my  old  friend  Ocean,"  he  writes 
from  Hastings  in  1814,  "and  I  find  his  bosom  as  pleasant  a  pillow  for 
one's  head  in  the  morning  as  his  daughters  of  Paphos  could  be  in  the 
twilight.  I  have  been  swimming  and  eating  turbot  and  smuggling  neat 
brandies  and  silk -handkerchiefs,  and  listening  to  my  friend  Hodgson's 
raptures  about  a  pretty  wife -elect  of  his,  and  walking  on  cliffs  and 
tumbling  down  hills,  and  making  the  most  of  the  dolce  far  niente  of  the 
last  fortnight." 

Whilst  he  was  at  Hastings  a  good  lady  prayed  earnestly  for  his 
"spiritual  renovation."     Possibly  this  would  have  lessened  the  enjoyment 

1  The  place  was  virtuous  as  well  as  elegant,  ment  elsewhere.     Innocent  recreational  delight, 

if  in   Hook's  time  it  maintained  the   traditions  card  assemblies,  billiards,  riding,  walking,  re'ad- 

of   1804,    when    "one    circumstance,   above    all  ing,  fishing,  and  other  modes  of  pastime  banish 

others,    must   render   Hastings    dear    to    those  care  from  the  mind,  whilst  the  salubrity  of  the 

who  have  a  regard  to  morality.    Vice  has  not  atmosphere  impels  disease  from  the  body 

yet  erected  her  standard  here  ;    the  numerous  "The  society  of  Hastings  are  {sic)  gay  without 

tribe  of  professional   gamblers,  unhappy  profli-  profligacy,  and   enjoy   life   without  mingling    in 

gates    and   fashionable    swindlers  find  employ-  its  debaucheries." 


HASTINGS  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  41 

of  his  stay  in  the  place  had  he  known  of  it.  But  it  was  not  until  the 
lady's  death  that  her  husband  communicated  to  the  poet  the  form  of 
prayer  that  she  had  been  offering  up.  Lamb,  who  came  later,  did  not 
like  Hastings.  In  unbridled  language  he  fulminates  against  the  town, 
the  resort  of  stockbrokers  and  of  other  people  whom  Elia  found  trying. 
To  pursue  further  the  story  of  the  Premier  Cinque  Port  would  be  to 
see  a  noble  historic  river  lose  itself  in  the  sands  of  Fashionable  Facts  and 
Polite  Anecdotes.     This  witness  I  leave  another  chronicler  to  bear. 


HASTINGS   AND    ITS    NEIGH- 
BOURHOOD. 

DESCRimVE. 

The  pathos  of  Hastings  does  not 
ie  in  its  picturesqueness,  for  of 
that  there  is  little  in  the  place. 
Yet  it  has  a  pathos  of  its  own. 
One  loves  old  towns  where  the 
sunlight  lies  along  mellowed  walls 
— one   loves   them   for    the    mellow- 


^THE  (3ATEWAY,*BATTLE   ABBEY 


^    ^ 


HASTINGS  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  43 

ness,  for  the  suggestion  of  lazy  age,  of  leisured  times  before  us,  of  things 
gone,  things  that  can  never  be  recalled. 

But  Hastings,  unless  one  has  there  spent  pleasant  hours,  the  pleasant 
idle  hours  of  dalliance,  one  cannot  love  for  old  sake's  sake.  It  suggests 
nothing  traditional ;  its  message  is  of  another  sort.  To  appreciate  it  one 
must  appreciate  the  Spirit  of  the  Age — of  an  Age  that  cares  for  nothing 
but  its  own  products.  As  a  modern  town  the  place  has  its  excellences 
— excellences  that  are,  perhaps,  none  the  less  real  for  being  conceivably 
unsympathetic.  It  is  a  little  London  of  the  shore — a  London  less  ap- 
palling, less  overwhelming.  Its  sanitative  arrangements  are  excellent;  its 
architecture  uninteresting.  It  bears  on  its  face  to-day  almost  no  traces 
of  its  illustrious  past,  but  to-day  one  does  not  live  for  the  Past,  and 
Hastings  elects  to  be  of  to-day. 

The  old  High  Street  of  the  town  has  elements  of  quaintness,  and 
there  are  one  or  two  old  tenements  in  the  same  quarter.^  St  Leonards 
— the  magnum  opus  of  the  ingenious  Mr  Burton,  the  Paradise  of  Mr  Jack 
Bragg — is  only  one  degree  less  architecturally  banal  than  the  streets  around 
the  Albert  Memorial.  It  might  have  been  evolved  by  Sir  John  Soane 
himself,  whilst  that  architect  was  engaged  in  prosecuting  his  search  for 
the  Sixth  Order.  The  Hastings  churches  are  some  of  them  of  consider- 
able antiquity.  St  Clement's  may  or  may  not  have  been  founded  in  the 
fourteenth  century  by  the  monks  of  Fecamp  ;  and  All  Saints',  which 
stands  on  the  site  of  an  earlier  building,  was  once  a  fifteenth -century 
building.  Both  churches  have  been  restored  by  an  architect  almost  as 
unsound  as  Sir  Gilbert  Scott. 

The  Conqueror's  castle  stands  forlornly  on  a  height  dominating  a 
grassy  "open  space"  which,  except  for  its  lift  and  its  purveyors  of  light 
refreshment,  bears  a  family  likeness  to  Primrose  Hill.     As  a  specimen  of 

1  The  execrable  Titus  Gates  was  a  native  of  Cloudesley  Shovel,  is  said  to  have  been  born 
this  part  of  the  town— was,  indeed,  its  curate  in  the  same  quarter,  but  that  is  matter  of  tradi- 
under    his   father.      The    gallant   Admiral,    Sir      tion. 


44  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

Norman  fortification  the  castle  is  not  remarkable.  It  is  a  not  vastly  well- 
constructed  hold — indeed,  in  comparison  with  Henry  VIII.'s  castle  at 
Camber,  it  seems  jerry-built.  But  its  situation  is  excellent,  and  its  inner 
spaces  are  laid  out  with  lawns  and  not  distressingly  tidy  beds  of  bright 
flowers.  One  may  here  sit  in  the  shade  of  a  tree  and  read  the  morning 
paper  with  more  advantage  and  comfort  than  elsewhere. 

From  the  castle  walls  one  may  see  both  old  and  new  town  stretch 
up  into  the  landward  valleys.  One  may  also  view  the  sea,  when  it  is  not 
too  covered  with  row-boats,  the  spasmodically  progressing  harbour  and  the 
fishing  town.  The  fishing  quarter  is  the  most  picturesque  of  the  town. 
One  sees  nets  a -making,  luggers  hauled  up  on  the  beach,  high  black 
timber  shanties  aspiring  to  the  heights  of  the  East  Hill,  which  presses 
them  into  the  sea.  One  may  also  read  mystical  statements  of  fisher- 
men's accounts,  written  in  unclerkly  hands,  and  pasted  up  against  the 
black  doors.  From  one  statement  that  I  attentively  perused  the  other 
day,  I  should  be  inclined  to  think  that  a  share  in  a  boat  marked  RX 
must  be  worth  many  gold-mines.  The  working  expenses  were  given  as 
a  trifle  over  ;^400,  the  takings  as  somewhat  over  £1200.  The  place, 
however,  like  most  others  where  gold  flows,  is  malodorous,  rivalling 
Cologne  itself 

In  the  soft  stone  face  of  the  towering  East  Hill  may  be  seen  the 
entrances  to  some  caves  that,  until  the  last  decade,  were  inhabited  by  a 
squatting  tribe.  A  paternal  corporation,  with  an  eye  to  the  observance 
of  difficultly  attained  convenances,  and  a  corporate  dislike  for  the  unusually 
picturesque,  ejected  the  ragged  clan,  their  goats  and  other  small  deer,  and 
fenced  off  the  cave  openings.  And  yet  a  small  admission  fee  would  have 
brought  hordes  of  visitors  anxious  to  inspect  the  more  or  less  savage 
inhabitants. 

There  are  other  caves— those  of  St  Clement's  in  the  hill  behind  the 
church  of  that  name.  These  are  illuminated  at  night  and  used  for  a 
dancing  saloon.     They  are  supposed  to  have  been  made  by  smugglers. 


HASTINGS  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  45 

But  then  everything  in  the  nature  of  a  cellar  of  this  kind  and  neighbour- 
hood is  ascribed  to  the  same  agency. 

On  the  East  Hill  is  the  Minnis  Rock,  which  may  possibly  have  formed 
part  of  a  cromlech.  It  is  usually  styled  a  hermitage  ;  but  it  bears  no  traces 
of  that  usage.  It  seems  far  more  likely  that  it  was  medievally  used  as  a 
votive  chapel,  full  in  view  of  the  fishermen  as  they  crossed  the  bar.  It  has 
three  diminutive  apartments  hollowed  out  in  it,  the  centre  one  of  these 
containing  an  altar.  Hermits  did  not  use  altars.  On  the  face  of  the  East 
Hill  are  to  be  seen  three  pointed  arches  carved  out  of  the  living  stone. 
These  are  stated  by  tradition  to  have  been  a  bogus  antiquity,  serving  as 
a  gathering-place  for  a  festive  society.  A  learned  archaeologist  has  lately 
proved  that  they  were  the  beginnings  of  a  chapel  similar  in  purpose  to  that 
of  the  Minnis  Rock.  The  completion  of  the  chapel  was  for  some  reason  or 
another — perhaps  through  lack  of  funds — deferred.  The  story  suggests  a 
reversal  of  the  famous  "  Bill  Stumps  his  mark "  case.  Perhaps,  after  all, 
Mr  Pickwick  may  have  been  in  the  right,  and  we  who  have  laughed  with 
his  detractors  have  taken  part  with  the  stoners  of  a  prophet. 

These,  then,  in  addition  to  the  stone  that  served  the  Conqueror  for  a 
landing-stage,  a  dining-table,  and  Harold  for  a  memorial,  are  the  antiquities 
of  the  premier  Cinque  Port.  They  are  somewhat  negligible.  But  there 
is  one  thing  about  the  place  that  makes  it  a  fascinating  study-ground,  there 
is  one  thing — its  floating  population. 

St  Leonards  is  comparatively  aristocratic.  Hastings  itself  in  the  winter 
months,  with  its  mild  grey  air,  its  quiet  sea,  is  the  home  of  the  silent 
invalid,  the  invalid  of  the  bath-chair  and  the  grey  muffler.  But  the 
summer  months  see  it  filled  by  the  noisy  Cockney,  and,  if  one  can  bring 
oneself  to  the  study,  if  one  can  forget  one's  nerves,  one  finds  that  this 
usually  trying  individual  grows  here  very  pathetic,  very  pleasant  to  con- 
template. For  it  is  pleasant  to  see  mankind  taking  its  ease,  lounging, 
enjoying. 


46  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

After  thought  one  understands  life— this  life  and  other  lives— so  much 
better.  One  understands  that  the  majority  of  mankind  finds  pleasure  not 
in  essaying  new  sensations,  but  in  tasting  the  old  savours,  in  doing  the 
things  that  his  life  is  spent  in  doing— but  in  doing  them  lazily,  liberally. 
Thus  the  airs  that  take  the  Cockney  ear  are  the  ones  that  are  the  most 
like  the  airs  that  were  last  popular.  Thus  the  Cockney  wit,  the  man 
whose  remarks  set  a  score  of  faces  grinning,  has  no  wit  of  his  own.  He 
repeats  the  current  witticism,  introduces  the  current  catch -words,  his 
audience  have  no  strain  imposed  on  their  imaginations.  They  feel  at 
ease.  Esthetics,  in  any  case,  are  all  a  matter  of  association.  "  I  want 
a  change,"  our  friend  says.  But  what  he  actually  wants  is  the  same  thing 
modified  as  little  as  possible.  Hence  the  architectural  banality  of  Hast- 
ings, its  petty  resemblance  to  the  London  from  which  its  summer  guests 
come. 

Not  being  swayed  by  the  same  emotions,  the  same  associations,  one 
may  find  it  difficult  to  appreciate  the  pleasure  of  the  thing.  When  last  at 
Hastings — taking  a  final  survey,  as  one  might  say — I  carefully  followed  the 
round  of  pleasures  provided.  I  rode  on  a  char-a-banc  up  to  Fairlight. 
One  sat  on  a  box-seat  behind  four  spavined  horses  which  dismally  limped 
up  the  abominable  hills.  A  warm  wet  mist  ^  hid  earth  and  sky  and  sea. 
One  climbed  up  and  up  and  up  between  rows  of  somewhat  squalid  villas. 
As  one  got  higher,  when  the  fog  lifted  for  a  minute,  one  saw  valleys  on 
either  hand,  sinking  abruptly  away  from  the  mounting  road.  The  valleys 
were  filled  with  slate-roofed,  yellow-chimneyed  houses,  crowding,  clinging 
for  foothold  to  the  steep  valley-sides. 

After  climbing  interminably  through  the  mist,  the  vehicle  stopped 
abruptly  at  a  "  kissing  gate  "  just  at  the  end  of  the  last  row  of  villas.  One 
descended  in  mild  surprise  and  walked  through  the  gate  on  to  the  bare  top 
of  a  sun-baked  "open  space."  One  was  going  to  visit  the  Lovers'  Seat. 
Tradition  says  that  the  lovers  threw  themselves  from  the  cliff-face  here. 

1  This,  however,  to  do  Hastings  justice,  is  not  the  normal  state  of  its  atmosphere. 


HASTINGS  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  47 

One  knew  very  well  that  tradition  lied,  that  the  lovers  married  and  lived 
moderately  happy  ever  after.  But  one  preferred  the  melodramatic.  One 
was  making  a  sentimental  pilgrimage,  one  was  paying  an  erotic  tribute.  It 
was  the  banana  season.  Through  the  mist  at  one's  feet  one  saw  the  lining 
of  the  banana-skins  stand  out  white  against  the  dun  grass.  This  was  the 
tribute.  Our  Saxon  ancestors,  passing  a  war-chief's  tomb,  threw  pebbles 
on  the  spot.  To-day  we  throw  empty  paper  bags,  cherry-stones,  and 
ginger-beer  bottles — to  form  an  endlessly  renewed  evidence  of  the  tribute 
we  pay  to  Eros. 

One  followed  the  banana  path.  It  led  through  some  glorious  wood- 
lands along  the  face  of  a  southward  cliff.  One  saw  the  mysterious  trees, 
the  wreaths  of  fog  hanging  among  their  branches,  one  heard  the  drip  of 
falling  water. .  The  glen  was  vocal  with  the  sounds  and  with  the  sound  of 
the  pilgrims'  happy  voices.  One  came  out  into  the  open  on  a  steep  cliff- 
path.  It  was  very  warm  in  the  mist  there.  One  smelt  the  wild  thyme  on 
the  breathless  air. 

In  a  few  minutes  from  far  down  below  came  whispering  the  roar  of  the 
invisible  sea.  It  was  incredible  the  emotion  caused  by  that  slumbrous 
murmur  winding  slowly,  slowly  upwards  through  the  rifts  in  the  mist. 
One  sat  down  near  the  Lovers'  Seat.  Processions  of  lovers  appeared 
through  the  gloom,  coming  out  of  the  darkness,  and  outlined  against  the 
grey  light.  As  each  pair  stood  before  the  seat  they  gave  forth  suitable 
ejaculation.  Then,  almost  invariably,  the  young  man's  fancy  led  him  to 
throw  up  his  arms  to  mimic  the  action  of  plunging  into  the  void.  One 
saw  them  silhouetted  for  a  minute.  Then  the  young  lady  would  exclaim, 
"  Don't  be  silly,  Charley,"  and  the  matter  was  at  an  end.  There  was 
something  disturbing  in  the  unanimity  of  inspiration  of  the  spot,  in  the 
turning  to  ridicule  of  a  sentimental  legend  that  had  brought  them  so  far.^ 

1  Curiously  enough,  Campbell  the  poet  records  estimable  ladies.  To  each  of  these  in  turn  he 
against  himself  a  similar  performance.  He  went  swore  that  unless  they  vowed  eternal  love  to  him 
up  to  the  Lovers'  Seat  accompanied   by  three      he  would  throw  himself  into  the  sea. 


48  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

It  is  not,  perhaps,  in  this  capacity  that,  except  for  his  unfaihng  good 
humour,  the  Cockney  is  a  pleasant  object.  Indeed,  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  hours  of  light  he  is  a  little  too  much  in  evidence.  But  in 
the  evening,  when  the  lamps  along  the  vast  parades  gleam  through  the 
welcome  coolness,  he  forms  part  of  a  pleasant  crowd.  For  it  is  pleasant 
to  see  the  normally  restless,  the  eternally  hurrying,  for  some  three  or 
four  unbraced  hours  sauntering,  taking  its  ease.  The  place  ripples  with 
quiet  laughter,  rustles  with  quiet  footfalls.  On  the  piers  there  is  the 
same  leisure.  One  may  listen  to  an  indifferent  variety  entertainment, 
perhaps  sometimes  to  a  very  good  one,  for  all  one  knows.  One  is  for 
once  in  a  way  amongst  a  people  wishing  to  be  and  being  pleased.  And 
that  one  is  so  seldom,  so  seldom.  This  is  the  pathos  of  Hastings — this 
its  message. 

Hastings  is  shut  out  from  the  eastern  world  by  high  hills.  To  reach 
Winchelsea  and  the  other  Ports,  one  must  climb  the  Ore  hill  through  a 
weary  wilderness  of  insignificant  houses.  Westwards  the  town  is  stretch- 
ing out  towards  the  Pevensey  marshes.  One  goes  by  road  through  St 
Leonards  and  its  interminable  suburbs — by  a  weary  and  hideous  road 
that  must  be  maddening  to  the  pedestrian,  that  is  unbearable  to  the 
cyclist.  One  comes  to  Bexhill,  whose  chief  landscape  feature  is  an  un- 
necessarily vast  gasometer.  Bexhill  may  once  have  been  a  quiet  old 
village,  for  it  still  retains  some  traces  of  a  former  state  of  the  sort,  but 
it  now  boasts  of  being  an  appendage  to  a  marine  suburb. 

Beyond  Bexhill  one  has  a  brief  respite  from  the  temporary-residential. 
The  main  road  to  Pevensey  ran  along  the  sea-shore ;  but  a  summer  storm, 
a  few  days  before  the  moment  of  writing,  entirely  washed  away  all  traces 
of  some  miles  of  that  highway.  Thus  the  unwary,  wandering,  unprepared 
traveller  finds  himself  suddenly  confronted  by  the  territory  of  the  sea 
itself  It  is  as  if  that  element,  in  these  piping  times,  had  resolved  to 
show  its  teeth,  to  show  that  its  power  is  still  great. 

If  the  sight  of  the  shingle  do  not  deter  one,   one  travels  towards 


HASTINGS   AND   ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD. 


49 


Pevensey  by  a  precarious  path  on  the  slope  of  the  railway  embankment. 
Just  before  again  reaching  a  hard  road,  one  comes  upon  a  pleasant  solitary 
congregation  of  huts  and  cottages  at  the  sluice  into  which  drains  Pevensey 
Marsh.  The  cottages  stand  mostly  on  the  shingle  at  the  bottom  of  a 
little  ba)'.  They  are  protected  from  the  southern  gales  by  a  sandbank 
out  in  the  open.  The  remains  of  a  submerged  forest,  too,  act  in  some 
sort  as  a  breakwater.  Thus  the  waves  add  to  the  beach  immediately 
in   front   of  the   cottages.       A   few   yards   farther   on,    outside    the   shelter 


Pevensey  Village. 

of  the  bank,  the  process  is  just  the  opposite.  Whilst  the  other  day 
I  was  sheltering  from  the  sun  in  a  smacksman's  cottage,  I  heard  from 
the  fisherman's  wife  the  stirring  tale  of  damages  done  by  the  last 
storm.  An  inhabited  martello  tower  and  an  inhabited  cottage  were 
clean  washed  away,   she  said. 

"  Th'  owd  chap  as  wer'  in  the  tower  wou'd  na  coom  eawt  twell  hoo 
wer'  welly  drooned." 

She  spoke  good  broad  Lancashire,  very  refreshing  to  hear.  She  had 
married  the   Pevensey  man,  her  husband,  and  had  come  to  this  desolate 

D 


50  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

place  to  be  within  reach  of  the  churchyard  in  which  her  husband's  kin 

slept. 

"  Hoo  winnot  have  so  fer  to  goo  from  here,"  she  said,  "an'  aw 
think  aw's  be  sarved  like  him.     'Tis  thretty  years  sin  aw  seed  Owdham, 

sitho." 

One  leaves  this  stony  sluice -hamlet  to  plunge  into  the  Pevensey 
Marsh.  It  is  a  friendly  little  tract,  lacking  altogether  the  desolate  grandeur 
of  its  Romney  brother.  The  red  cows  that  graze  it  break  up  its  surface 
much  more  than  do  the  far-spreading  sheep-flocks  of  the  marshes  beyond 
Rye.  Its  grasses  are  longer,  more  lush;  one  is  never  surrounded  by  an 
unbroken  horizon  of  flat  land.  Otherwise  its  configuration  is  very  similar 
to  that  of  the  Romney  Marsh.  To  the  west  there  is  the  range  of  hills  end- 
ing in  Beachy  Head ;  running  from  north-east  to  north-west  the  hills  below 
Hurstmonceux  and  Crowhurst ;  to  the  east  the  heights  above  Hastings; 
the  little  space  of  marsh  in  an  irregular  triangle.  The  little  river  Avon 
meanders  through  it,  and  it  is  everywhere  intersected  by  rush-bordered 
dykes.  It  is  the  pleasantest  portion  of  the  westward  road,  this  which  runs 
from  the  sluice  to  Pevensey. 

Gotham  itself  is  a  quiet  little  village  of  one  street  sloping  up  to  the 
castle.  It  is  just  like  any  other  little  Sussex  village.  They  show  you 
the  cottage  that  served  the  Gothamites  for  a  municipal  building  until 
Sir  Charles  Dilke's  Act  took  away  their  municipal  rights.  The  town 
that  William  the  Conqueror  honoured  with  his  presence,  that  Oelle  of 
Northumberland  sacked,  that  the  Romans  made  a  principal  city,  now 
undergoes  no  invasions  more  disturbing  than  those  of  the  trippers  from 
Hastings  and  Eastbourne.  For  the  most  part  it  slumbers  as  slumbers 
the  desert  sand.  It  lends  its  name  to  a  marine  suburb  that  I  have 
not  visited,  lying  as  it  does  a  mile  distant  from  the  original  town.  But 
I  am  assured  that  it  boasts  of  every  modern  convenience,  and  I  have 
no  doubt  that  it  does. 

The  castle  is  one  of  the  most  imposing  ruins  of  the  neighbourhood. 


HASTINGS  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  51 

The  outer  Roman  wall  is  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  circumference, 
and  the  Norman  and  later  medieval  remains  of  the  interior  are  noble 
in  proportion  and  suggestion.  On  a  sunny  day  one  may  lie  in  the  shade 
of  the  walls  and  feel  delightfully  lazy  and  at  ease  until  one  resumes 
the  road.^ 

Eastbourne  lies  a  few  miles  to  the  south-west  of  this  place,  and  if 
one  be  so  disposed,  one  may  take  it  on  one's  road  to  Seaford,  the  most 
western  of  the  members  of  the  Ports.  Eastbourne  contains  a  number 
of  hotels,  of  bathing-machines,  of  parades  and  waggonettes.  It  styles 
itself  "Empress  of  Watering-places."  This  is  intended  to  insult  the 
town  of  Brighton,  which  is  styled  the  Queen  of  such.  Eastbourne  was 
once  a  Roman  station — the  remains  of  villas  and  of  baths  have  been 
found  in  the  neighbourhood — was  once  called  Hydney ;  was  a  member 
of  the  Port  of  Hastings.  It  is  not  otherwise  historically  remarkable 
or  interesting. 

To  reach  Seaford  from  here  one  climbs  the  Beachy  Head  range, 
passing  through  the  villages  of  East  Dean  and  West  Dean.  Of  the 
former  the  excellent  Parson  Darby  was  rector.  Tradition  has  it  that 
his  "  Hole "  served  himself  as  a  refuge  from  the  storms  of  married  life 
as  well  as  the  mariners  for  one  from  those  on  the  sea.  But  one 
must  remember  that  Parson  Darby's  efforts  to  prevent  shipwrecks 
were  disliked  by  his  parishioners.  Beachy  Head  itself  is  a  bold 
headland,  on  whose  brow  the  South  Downs  come  to  an  abrupt  end. 
One  may  draw  deep  breaths  on  its  verge ;  one  may  see,  in  imagina- 
tion, the  hordes  of  sea -ghosts  swirling  in  and  out  among  the  flights 
of  sea-birds.  Alone  there,  with  the  sea  and  the  sky  and  the  cropped 
turf,  one  may,  if  one  will,  be  happy — and  all  around  grey  seascape  and 
the  sound  of  droned  sea-song. 

1  Messrs   Roach   Smith   and    Mark  Anthony      may  be   found  in   Lower's  '  History  of  Sussex,' 
Lower  made  careful  examinations  and  excava-      and  Smith's  'Excavations  at  Pevensey.' 
tions  in  the  castle.     Their   resulting  opinions 


52  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

In  certain  lights — with  the  morning  sun  against  one — these  downs 
are  as  monotonous  and  maddening  as  anything  in  hfe ;    in  certain  lights 

in  many  —  they  are   as  varied   in   their  swelling   lines   as   the   lot   of 

man ;  as  subtle  in  the  harmonies  of  their  folds  as  life  itself.  When 
the  evening  sunlight  abounds  in  red  the  greens  of  certain  fields  appear 
like  the  hues  of  medieval  velvets,  fit  for  the  limbs  of  one's  love;  the 
green  of  certain  other  fields  is  shot  with  the  blaze  and  glory  of  scarlet 
poppies — like  green  silks  shot  with  red. 

They  need  wooing,  though,  these  downs  near  the  sea ;  they  are  at 
times  out  of  humour,  and  then  it  is  best  to  leave  the  open  for  one  or 
other  of  the  little  villages.  East  or  West  Dean  will  serve.  They  lie 
in  valleys  and  have  gathered  trees  about  them,  trees  that  are  never  out 
of  humour,  that  are  for  ever  beautiful.  From  East  Dean — it  was  called 
Orientalis  to  distinguish  it  from  west  East  Dean,  near  Chichester — 
the  valley  slopes  graciously  down  to  Biding  Gap,  a  romantic  opening 
in  the  cliff-face.  Tradition  says  that  French  pirates  were  in  the  habit 
of  landing  here  until  the  gateway  across  and  the  portcullis  above  it 
were  erected.  At  West  Dean,  according  to  Lower,  Alfred  the  Great 
met  his  teacher,  the  great,  and  learned  Asser  ;  but  rival  archaeolo- 
gists declare  that  it  was  not  at  this  pretty  West  Dean,  but  at 
the  prettier  West  Dean  on  the  Lavant,  that  the  memorable  meeting 
took  place. 

One  crosses  the  little  river  Cuckmere  and  shortly  reaches  Seaford, 
an  ugly,  little,  modern  watering-place  only  less  unpicturesque  than  many 
others  by  reason  of  its  phenomenal  smallness.  It  is  distinguished  by 
containing  the  most  western  of  Pitt's  martello  towers,  the  most  western 
of  Henry  VIII.'s  castles,  and  by  being  the  most  western  town  of  the  Ports' 
confederation. 

I  have  seen  it  look  pretty  at  sunset,  but  other  places  do  as  much  at 
such  times.     One  may  sit  on  a  seat  at  the  railway-station  and  watch  the 


HASTINGS  AND   ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  53 

light  fading  out  of  the  sky  and  the  water  over  by  Newhaven  pierhead. 
The  jetty  runs  seaward  out  of  the  Hquid  black  shadow  of  the  cliffs  behind, 
smacks  sail  silently  in  behind  it,  lights  shine  out — one  sees  the  landscape 
for  Tennyson's  "  Crossing  the  Bar." 

The  older  inhabitants  will  tell  one  stories  of  the  town  in  its  corporate 
days.  I  am  indebted  for  a  certain  amount  of  information  to  the  station- 
master.  It  seems  that  on  the  days  of  the  mayoral  election  the  barons  and 
jurats  met  in  the  court-hall — a  cottage  room  no  larger  than  1 2  feet  by  1 2. 
Thence  they  proceeded  in  solemn  procession,  robed  and  gowned,  all  round 
the  town  until  they  came  to  a  post  standing  near  the  sea-shore.  Here  they 
halted  for  the  mayor  in  office  to  whisper  the  name  of  his  successor  in  the 
post's  ear.  If  the  post  made  no  objection  the  new  mayor  was  declared  well 
and  truly  elected. 

According  to  the  station-master,  the  great  Serjeant  Parry  of  Old 
Bailey  fame  invariably  attended  these  solemnities.  He  took  no  part 
in  them,  but  was  usually  observed  to  be  doubled  up  with  insuppressible 
laughter.  A  feature  of  the  Seaford  judgment-seat  rather  suggests  the 
trials  of  Morocco.^  For  the  chair  boasted  no  back,  the  counterfeit  present- 
ment of  one  being  painted  on  the  wall.  Under  its  shadow  whimsical 
judgments  were  delivered,  as  I  have  elsewhere  stated.  Sir  Charles 
Dilke's  Act  abolished  mayor,  processions,  oracular  post,  and  chair. 
One  wishes  Sir  Charles  no  good  for  his  Act.  In  fact  the  national 
hand  should  be  heavy  on  those  who  dig  old  customs  up.  One  has  so 
few  things  to  remind  one  of  the  doings  of  the  old  times  before  us — 
one  is  so  aridly  rational  that  the  little  dying  flames  of  whimsical  lights 
should  be  sedulously  guarded — lest  we  forget. 

The  men  of  Seaford  fought  a  good  fight  in  other  days.  But  for  them 
and  their  fellows  we  should  scarcely  now  be  what  we  are.  We  might  be 
even  worse.     Thus  it  behoves  us  to  remember ;  and  without  the  little  aids 

1  See  Mogreb-el-Acksa,  by  R.  B.  Cunningham  Graham. 


54  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

to  remembrance  afforded  by  rites  like  those  swept  away  by  an  Act.^  we 
have  little  to  redeem  us  from  being  mere  inmates  of  excrescences  like  those 
on  Seaford  shore. 

To  return  inwards  to  the  liberties  of  the  Five  Ports,  it  is  pleasantest  to 
turn  inland.  One  may  go,  for  instance,  to  Lewes  up  the  pretty  valley  of 
the  Ouse.  By  keeping  to  the  eastward  road  by  the  river  one  avoids  the 
unpleasant  sensation  of  passing  through  squalid  Newhaven  —  the  town 
whose  rise  spelt  the  fall  of  Seaford.  The  road  is  delightful  when  the  sun 
is  setting  behind  the  further  downs.  Then  one  reaches  Lewes  in  a  pleasant 
frame  of  mind. 

Lewes  contains  a  castle,  and  once  contained  a  noble  priory,  which 
vanished  under  the  hand  of  the  first  of  our  iconoclastic  Cromwells.  The 
castle  stands  on  the  highest  ground  of  the  loyal  town.  One  sees 
pleasant  views  from  its  battlements ;  and  in  the  museum  of  the  Sussex 
Archaeological  Society  one  may  see  the  seals  of  most  of  the  Five  Ports. 
Lewes — loyal  Lewes — figured  in  the  history  of  the  nation  and  of  the 
Ports.  It  was  here  that  Henry  III.,  after  attempting  to  reduce  the 
Ports  to  allegiance,  met  defeat  at  the  hands  of  the  men  to  whom  the 
Ports  were  loyal. 

"Then  was  the  field  covered  with  dead  bodies,  and  gasping  and 
groning  was  heard  on  every  side  ;  for  either  of  them  was  desyrous  to  bring 
the  other  out  of  life.  And  the  father  spared  not  the  sonne,  neither  yet  the 
Sonne  the  father.  Alliance  at  that  time  was  bound  to  defiance,  and 
Christian  blood  was  shed  that  day  without  pity.  Lastly,  the  victory 
fell  to  the  Barons ;  so  that  there  was  taken  the  king  and  the  king  of  the 
Romayns,  Sir  Edward  the  king's  sonne,  with  many  other  noblemen  to  the 
number  of  fifteen  barons  and  bannerets,  and  of  the  common  people  there 

1  One  is  of  course  aware  that  abuses  crept  into  drunlcen  but  indispensable  shop-hand  of  his  own, 
the  procedure  of  these  small  courts.  But  the  to  the  J.  P.  who,  yesterday,  kept  a  girl  of  seven- 
abuses  were  quite  tiny  in  comparison  with  the  teen  six  months  in  prison  awaiting  trial,  for  the 
picturesqueness.  One  prefers,  I  think,  the  mayor  offence  of  obtaining  by  false  pretences  goods 
of  Seaford,   who    condoned    the   offences   of   a  worth  one  penny. 


HASTINGS  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  55 

were  slain  about  15,000."^  Cobbett  called  Lewes  the  town  of  clean 
windows  and  pretty  faces,  and  such  it  remains.  It  consists  of  a  long, 
sleepy  street  running  upwards  along  a  ridge  of  the  downs  ;  but  it  has  no 
salient  characteristics  other  than  those  of  quiet  thriving. 

One  goes  from  Lewes  to  Pevensey  along  pleasant  valleys,  watered 
by  little  streams,  shut  in  by  high  hills.  One  catches  a  glimpse  now 
and  then  of  the  Beachy  Head  range ;  and  now  and  then  of  the  Long 
Man  of  Wilmington,  a  gigantic  figure  scored  in  the  sloping  turf  of  a 
hill.  He  stands  there,  as  he  has  stood  for  ages  and  ages,  holding  a 
spear  in  either  hand — a  monument  to  Odin  or  to  some  other  hero  of 
the  vanished  Saxons.  Just  beyond  Pevensey  one  may  turn  aside  and 
pass  through  the  narrow  marsh  to  the  low  hills  and  climb  upwards 
towards  Hurstmonceux. 

The  castle  is  an  ordinary  show-place — a  mellow  brick  structure  built 
rather  for  indwelling  than  for  resistance.  It  took  in  1440  the  place  of  a 
manor-house — the  owner,  Sir  Roger  de  Fienes,  in  that  year  receiving  from 
Henry  VI.  licence  to  kernel.  It  seems,  however,  to  have  been  regarded  as 
little  more  than  an  ordinary  house.  "  The  same  house  is  built  castle-like, 
in  a  quadrant,  as  before,  having  at  every  corner  one  fair  tower,  covered 
with  lead,  of  six-square,  four  stories  high,  and  also  between  every  one  of 
the  same  corner  towers  there  is  one  other  tower  of  like  building,  leading  to 
the  leads  and  embattlements."  ^ 

The  castle  never  underwent  any  sieges,  but  its  lords  had  to  undergo 
special  vicissitudes.  The  son  of  its  builder  became  by  marriage  Lord 
Dacre — the  Lord  Dacre  of  the  south.  The  Dacres  seem  to  have  been  an 
unruly  crew.  The  second  lord  was  committed  to  the  Fleet  for  harbouring 
thieves,  and  for  "  his  remysnes  and  negligence  in  ponyshement  of  them,  and 
also  his  famylyar  and  conversaunte  being  with  them,  knowing  them  to  have 

'  Grafton's  Larger  Chronicle.  ber  of  interesting  facts  concerning  Hurstmon- 

2  Return    of    12    Eliz.    quoted    in    Venables'      ceux    will    be    found    in    Mr  Augustus   Hare's 
'  Hurstmonceux  and  its   Lords.'      A  vast   num-      memoirs. 


56  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

commyted  felonye  and  diuers  other  misdoings."  His  grandson  met  his  end 
on  the  gallows.  Intent  on  a  poaching  frolic,  "  he  passed  from  his  house  at 
Hurstmonseux,  the  last  day  of  April  1541,  in  the  night  season."  On  the 
way  he  and  his  train  committed  a  murder,  and  eventually  he  and  three  of 
his  men  swung  for  it.  Says  Holinshed  :  "  For  the  said  young  lord,  being 
a  right  towardlie  yoong  gentleman,  and  such  a  one  as  manie  had  conceiued 
great  hope  of  better  proofe,  no  small  mone  and  lamentation  was  made ;  the 
more,  indeed,  for  it  was  thought  he  was  induced  to  commit  such  folly  by 
some  light  heads  which  were  about  him."  The  young  lord — he  was  but 
four-and-twenty — hardly  seems  to  have  had  the  fair  play  that  lords  of  those 
times  expected.  He  was  so  rich,  and  such  a  power  in  the  land,  that  Henry 
VIII.  is  said  to  have  been  suspicious  of  him ;  and,  says  Camden,  "  his  great 
estate,  which  the  greedy  courtiers  gaped  after,  caused  them  to  hasten  his 
destruction." 

It  was  at  Hurstmonceux,  too,  that  a  gardener  in  league  with  smugglers 
played  such  pranks  with  a  muffled  drum  that  Addison  did  his  best  to 
immortalise  him  and  his  instrument  in  a  bad  comedy.  Walpole  visited 
the  place,  and,  with  the  bad  taste  of  a  dilettante  of  his  polished  period, 
found  it  detestable  in  comparison  with  Strawberry  Hill. 

At  present  the  castle  is  a  mere  shell  containing  an  exceptionally 
beautiful  walled  garden  — a  rose-garden  that  one  might  profitably  travel 
miles  to  visit  on  a  sunny  day.  It  is  pleasant,  too,  to  have  tea  on  the 
green  grass  where  once  stood  the  banqueting  -  hall  of  the  Dacres 
and  their  thieves.  One  sits  in  the  shadow  and  watches  the  sunlight 
linger  on  the  high  brick  towers,  on  the  masses  of  ivy.  One  looks 
across  the  teacups  and  sees  the  green  Sussex  hillsides  through  the 
empty  window-spaces— sees  them  framed  and  rendered  greener  by  the 
red  of  the  frame. 

The  tracks  from  Hurstmonceux  to  Battle  lead  one  past  Ashburnham 
Park  over  a  surpassingly  lovely  road.  One  has  on  the  left  the  great 
stretches   of  sward,    noble   trees,    and    mellow    fences;    on    the   right   a 


HASTINGS  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  57 

confusion  of  softly  outlined  valleys  waving  down  towards  the  distant 
sea.  Ashburnham  House  is  a  rather  uninteresting  modern  building,  but 
the  lands  around  it  have  been  in  possession  of  the  Ashburnham  family 
from  time  immemorial.  The  library  used  to  be  famous  the  world  over, 
and  the  relics  of  Charles  I.  are  still  preserved  in  the  place. 

Battle,  or  rather  Battle  Abbey,  is  one  of  those  show-places  that 
have  lost  most  of  their  properties  making  for  association.  It  is  true 
that  the  battle  of  Hastings  took  place  in  the  immediate  vicinity,  but 
the  fact  is  not  brought  to  mind  by  the  appearance  of  the  barbarously 
restored  dwelling  that  there  confronts  one.  Indeed  it  is  nearly  im- 
possible to  become  enthusiastic  about  battles  in  the  immediate  vicinity. 
The  Conqueror  founded  the  abbey  to  commemorate  his  victory,  but 
he  can  hardly  have  foreseen  that  it  would  have  brought  crowds  of 
woefully  uninterested  people  to  wander  about  the  spot  on  which  he 
caused  his  banner  to  be  set  on  high. 

It  needs  an  effort,  greater  than  most  are  capable  of,  to  drive  the 
image  of  the  place  as  it  is  out  of  one's  mind's  eye ;  to  see  the  peoples 
who  built  it,  for  whom  it  was  built,  who  named  it  "the  token  and 
pledge  of  the  Crown  and  realm  of  England."  The  monks  who  held 
the  ground  after  the  king  and  his  men  had  taken  it  from  the  former 
king  and  his  men,  were  probably  little  better,  perhaps  much  worse, 
than  the  people  who  occupy  or  visit  it  to-day.  But  they  contrived, 
at  least,   to  be  more  interesting. 

The  monks  quarrelled  a  good  deal  with  the  Conqueror  as  to  the  site 
of  the  abbey,  protested  that  it  contained  neither  water  nor  stone,  that  it 
lay  upon  a  hill  with  a  parched  dry  soil.  The  king  was  obdurate  ;  the  high 
altar  of  the  abbey  was  to  stand  upon  the  place  where  his  victorious  banner 
had  stood.  "  If  God  spare  my  life,"  he  said,  "  I  will  so  amply  provide  for 
the  place  that  wine  shall  be  more  abundant  here  than  water  is  in  any  other 
great  abbey."  He  had  stone  brought  from  Caen  until  by  a  miracle  a 
quarry  was  revealed  to  them.     "  They  made  search  accordingly,  and  at  no 


58  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

great  distance  from  the  boundary  which  had  been  marked  out  for  the 
abbey,  found  so  great  a  store  of  stone  that  it  plainly  appeared  that  a 
concealed  treasure  of  it  had  been  divinely  laid  up  in  that  very  place  from 
eternity  for  the  building  there  to  be  erected." 

Before  the  building  was  completed  William  placed  in  it  "his  royal 
pallium,  beautifully  ornamented  with  gold  and  very  costly  gems,  and  300 
amulets  suitably  fabricated  of  gold  and  silver,  many  of  which  were  attached 
to  chains  of  those  metals  and  contained  innumerable  relics  of  the  saints : 
with  a  feretory  in  the  form  of  an  altar,  in  which  also  were  many  relics,  and 
upon  which  mass  was  accustomed  to  be  celebrated  in  his  expeditions." 
Inasmuch  as  the  feretory  upon  which  swears  the  pictured  Harold  in  the 
Bayeux  tapestry  takes  the  form  of  an  altar,  it  is  just  possible  that  this  was 
the  very  altar  upon  which  Harold  swore  away  his  kingdom.^  The  good 
monks  did  not  long  enjoy  their  amulets  in  peace,  for  a  monk  of  the  Abbey 
of  Fly  importuning  Rufus  for  a  chasuble  for  his  abbey,  Rufus  gave  him  a 
letter  to  the  Abbey  of  Battle,  commanding  them  to  give  the  bearer  ten 
pounds  of  silver.  According  to  the  chronicler  of  Battle,  the  king  had  no 
right  to  make  the  demand ;  but  the  monks,  in  their  fear  of  the  temporal 
power,  thought  fit,  after  vain  protestings,  to  comply.  Having  no  other 
silver,  the  Abbot  of  Battle  was  forced  to  part  with  the  precious  amulets, 
wherewith  the  monk  of  Fly  joyously  purchased  the  purple  and  gold  fit  for 
his  chasuble.     But  mark  the  sequel  : 

Firstly,  a  tempest  and  an  earthquake  afflicted  the  wretched  Monas- 
tery of  Fly.  "  The  Lord,  the  righteous  Judge,  was  not  slack  to  manifest 
His  vengeance  for  the  spoiling  of  His  beloved  Martin  and  the  tokens  of 
the  saints  preserved  in  His  temple;  for  the  next  year  the  visitation  was 
renewed  in  the  following  manner:  The  vestment  of  which  we  have 
spoken  was  lying  carefully  folded  up  in  a  linen  cloth  between  two  of 
the  principal  vestments  of  the  abbey,  when  a  stroke  of  a  thunderbolt, 
brandished  from  heaven,  pierced  it,  and,  although  the  linen  cloth  and  the 

'  This,  at  least,  is  a  suggestion  of  Mr  Lower. 


HASTINGS  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  59 

vestments  above  escaped  all  injury,  this  chasuble  had  wonderful  holes 
made  in  it  by  the  force  of  the  lightning.  .  .  .  We  have  learned  these 
particulars  from  those  who  were  present  as  eyewitnesses,  and  mainly  from 
the  exactor  of  the  money  himself,  the  monk  Richard."  ^ 

The  theft  or  extortion  of  sacred  relics  was  common  enough  in  the 
middle  ages,  but  it  was  not  often  that  a  despoiled  abbey  was  thus 
vindicated.  One  hears  of  no  retribution  overtaking  the  thief  of  the  relics 
of  the  Heiligen  drei  Koenige,  and  the  monk  who  stole  for  his  own  abbey 
of  Burgue  St  Winnox  the  bones  of  St  Lewinna  from  the  Monastery  of 
St  Andrew  near  Seaford,  was  held  up  to  posterity  as  "  fidelis  fur  et  latro 
bonus "  (a  faithful  thief  and  an  excellent  robber).  But  the  stars  in  their 
courses  would  generally  seem  to  have  fought  on  the  side  of  the  monks 
of  Battle.  They,  at  least,  were  uniformly  successful  in  their  quarrels 
with  the  Bishops  of  Chichester,  who  continually  essayed  to  reduce  them 
to  a  subordinate  position. 

The  Chronicle  of  Battle  Abbey  affords  a  good  deal  of  interesting 
reading.  From  it  one  may  learn  how  one  abbot  would  leave  the  affairs 
of  the  abbey,  the  rents  and  tithes,  too  much  in  the  hands  of  the  stewards ; 
how  the  stewards  waxed  fat  and  the  monks  thin ;  how  the  next  abbot 
set  his  house  in  order  in  despite  of  the  hardy  insolence  of  the  stewards,, 
and  so  on,  and  so  on.  But  all  these  things  are  behind  us.  Of  the  things 
that  remain  it  suffices  to  say  that  these  too  shall  pass  away  and  be 
reckoned. 

For  the  rest,  if  I  have  deplored  the  giving  over  of  these  fair  things 
to  an  uncongenial  folk,  I  would  not  be  understood  as  wishing  the  matter 


1  This  and  the  foregoing  extracts  are   taken  toration,   which    has    gone   on   unceasingly.     It 

from  the  Battel  Abbey  Chronicle  (Lower's  trans-  passed   through   the  hands   of  various   families 

lation).     The  subsequent  history   of  the   abbey  before   coming   into   those   of  the    ducal    house 

is  very  similar  to  that  of  most  others.     By  the  of  Cleveland.     It  was  for  a  time  inhabited  by 

time  of  the  Reformation  it  had  fallen  into  some-  the  fair  Geraldine,  the  second  wife  of  Sir  Anthony 

thing  like  decay.     Henry  VIII.  granted  it  to  Sir  Browne. 
Anthony  Browne,  who  began  the  work  of  res- 


6o 


THE   CINQUE   PORTS. 


otherwise.  The  least  imaginative  of  us  must  gain  some  inspiration  from 
the  tract  of  lands,  the  ancients'  battle-grounds,  lying  along  this  sea-shore. 
And  this,  perhaps,  is  better  than  that  they  should  be  possessed  by  the 
solitary  idealist.  Besides,  by  the  massing  of  happy  people  in  these  few 
towns  and  hamlets,  greater  spaces  of  the  fair  earth  are  left  solitary  with 
the  sky. 


■■^:.  o-.- 


Ruins  of  IIuustmonceux  Castle. 


¥ 

M, 

^1   . 

•4 

1 

U 

%    C"- 

t     .J. 

s 

WIfiCH€LSEA 


6i 


CHAPTER    IV. 


WINCHELSEA. 


HISTORIC. 


"  Seeing  therefore  that  as  corne  hath  his  chaff  and  metal  his  drosse,  and 
that  even  so  can  there  hardly  any  writer  of  the  ancient  History  of  any 
Nation  be  found  out  that  hath  not  his  proper  vanities  mixed  with  sincere 
veritie  :  the  part  of  a  wise  Reader  shall  be,  not  to  reject  the  one  for 
doubt  of  the  other,  but  rather  with  the.  fire  and  fan  of  judgment  and 
discretion  to  trie  and  sift  them  asunder.  And  as  my  purpose  is,  for 
mine  own  part,  to  use  the  commoditie  thereof  so  oft  as  it  shall  like 
me ;  so  my  counsell  shall  be  that  other  men  will,  both  in  this  and 
other,  observe  this  one  rule.  That  they  neither  reject  without  reason, 
nor  receive  without  discretion.. 

"Thus  much  in  my  way,  for  assertion  of  the  Kentish  Historic,  I 
thought  good  to  say,  once  for  all,  to  the  end  that  from  henceforth 
(whatsoever  occasion  of  debate  shall  be  offered  concerning  either  the 
veritie  or  antiquitie  of  the  same)  I  neither  trouble  myself  nor  tarrie  my 
Reader  with  any  further  defence." 

Could  one,  upon  the  whole,  adopt  a  wiser  course — be  one  myself, 
the  author,  or  the  reader — than  is  here  exampled  by  "  William  Lambarde 
of  Lincoln's  Inne,  Gent,"  who  wrote  his  Perambulation  of  Kent  in  the 
year    1570?     I   think  not,  and  thinking  so,  am  content  to  let  that  lover 


62  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

of  the  old  times  before  him,  sturdy  prose-writer  and  excellent  Elizabethan 
Perambulator,  introduce  my  latter-day  traversing  of  his  grounds. 

In  the  treacherous  marshland  of  historic  controversy  the  stream  of 
Cinque  Ports'  story  seems  to  have  its  head.  In  Lambarde's  day  people 
were  engaged  in  discussing  the  exact  position  of  the  fortress  of  Andred- 
ceaster ;  the  question  is  still  a  bone  of  contention  for  the  Sussex  archseo- 
logian.  In  Lambarde's  time  people  quarrelled  about  the  site  of  old 
Winchelsea.  They  are  quarrelling  still  in  that  part  of  the  world.  To 
me — and  probably  to  the  greater  part  of  the  world — it  seems  a  small 
matter.  One  has  the  grace  to  allow  that  a  great  principle  is  involved. 
But  the  winds  and  waters  of  the  sea  have  had  their  way,  and  Old 
Winchelsea  is  as  undiscoverable  as  Carthage. 

It  did  not  play  as  large  a  part,  but  the  memories  of  little  things, 
to  those  haunted  by  them,  are  as  poignant  as  the  memories  of  the 
great.  Good  Englishmen — bad  ones  too,  perhaps — imagine  that  their 
country's  fame  will  in  ages  to  come  be  sounded  as  widely,  as  loudly,  as 
that  of  the  dead  empires.  They  have  a  certain  spirit  that  leads  them  to 
build  up  nations  out  of  unpromising  materials.  "It's  dogged  as  does  it," 
they  are  taught,  and  they  go  on  pegging  away. 

In  the  old  times  before  us,  the  men  and  women  from  whom  we 
have  inherited,  worked  unrealising  at  building  up  an  empire,  mother  of 
empires.  They  pegged  away.  A  handful  of  them  founded  this  old 
Winchelsea.  We  must  think  of  them  as  naked  savages  perhaps.  They 
lived  on  the  edge  of  a  wood  wider  to  them  than  the  universe  is  to  us ; 
they  had  fears— life  to  them  was  one  black  panic.  The  Infinite  was 
peopled  with  lurking  devils.  They  wished  to  shut  out  the  Infinite,  to 
shut  out  the  gloom  of  the  forest.  They  built  hovels  on  a  sandbank 
where  the  salt  air  of  the  sea  forbade  the  wood's  growth.  Inside  the 
walls  of  their  huts  they  made-believe  that  the  black  woods,  the  sluggish 
grey  stream,  the  demon-peopled  Infinite,  did  not  exist.  They  discovered 
that  the  sea  held  fish,  that  fish  satisfied  certain   cravings.     They  made 


WINCHELSEA.  63 

themselves  boats.  They  were  laying  the  foundations  of  the  Fleet 
in  Being,  of  the  fleets  yet  to  have  being.  They  began  to  venture  up 
the  sluggish  stream,  to  fear  the  devils  less.  They  began  to  venture 
on  the  sacrilege  of  cutting  down  the  tree  -  homes  of  the  devils 
themselves. 

Peoples  from  beyond  the  seas  invaded  them,  enjoyed  the  fruits  of 
their  toil,  spread  the  blessings  of  civilisation.^  Perhaps  the  dwellers  on 
the  shingle  bank  thought  their  invaders  gods.  If  they  did,  they  grew 
sceptical  sooner  or  later  as  they  began  to  appreciate  the  blessings  of 
education.  They  realised  that  two  could  play  the  game.  They 
ventured  on  reprisals  after  two  or  three  invading  nations  had  had 
their  day. 

Perhaps  from  having  been  beaten  so  often  their  perception  of 
beatings  was  dulled,  and,  like  their  descendants,  they  did  not  know  when 
they  were  beaten.  They  began  to  beat.  They  got  together  two  or  three 
ships,  sailed  across  the  seas,  and  harried  as  they  had  been  harried. 
They  grew  proud,  adopted  the  role  of  defenders  of  their  inland  kinsmen, 
claimed  privileges,  the  price  of  their  labours.  They  realised  that  they 
were  part  of  a  nation. 

Their  town  grew  rich,  built  churches,  elected  aldermen,  evolved 
custumals,  civic  rites  and  functions,  grew  proud  of  its  corporate  import- 
ance. It  boasted  seven  hundred  households.  "  Its  contributions  to 
the  Royal  Navy  of  England  were  the  largest  in  number  and  tonnage  of 
all  the  Cinque  Ports  or  their  members,  and  it  commonly  supplied  from 
among  its  citizens  the  Admiral  of  the  Cinque  Ports,  who  was,  in  fact, 
the  commander  of  the  royal  fleet."  Perhaps  it  grew  too  proud,  perhaps 
its  townsmen  declared  too  loudly  and  persistently  that  they  ruled  the 
waves.  The  sea  stirred  in  its  bed,  determined  to  try  a  fall  with  its 
rulers.     Tempests   aided   it,   winds,  earthquakes,   thunderbolts,   incredible 

1  In  Johnson's  map  of  the  district  Winchel-      name  of  Staninges.     I  don't  know  who  was  his 
sea  and  Rye  figure  as  a  single  town  under  the      authority. 


64  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

phenomena — two  flood -tides  without  an  ebb.  The  townsmen  used  their 
mops  vigorously  to  little  purpose.  They  were  beaten,  but  they  did  not 
know  it.  At  least  they  refused  to  acknowledge  that  the  town  was  a 
matter  of  any  importance.  They  cried  to  the  ocean  that  they  would 
rule  it,  whether  or  no.  They  importuned  the  king  of  the  land,  represented 
the  hugeness  of  the  nation's  peril,  lacking  a  Winchelsea  to  protect  it  with 
its  ships,  its  garcions,  and  its  admirals. 

One  recognises  in  all  this  the  national  characteristics.  One  might, 
it  is  true,  recognise  them  in  other  villages — nay,  in  solitary  households. 
But  Winchelsea,  along  with  the  other  Ports,  really  did  play  an  important 
part  in  the  development  of  the  kingdom  at  that  date.  They  had  to  bear 
the  brunt  of  what  foreign  aggression  there  was  ;  they  were  for  ever  at 
war  with  the  townsmen  of  the  opposite  coasts.  The  sailors  of  the 
kingdom  were  trained  in  their  fishing  fleets  ;  all  communication  with  the 
outer  world  passed  through  them.  One  has  only  to  look  at  the  map  of 
the  Channel  to  realise  as  much — nay,  on  a  clear  day,  one  has  only  to 
stand  on  a  little  hill  on  that  coast. 

An  east  wind  there  brings  a  clear  day,  as  a  rule.  One  looks  along 
it  and  sees — very  close  at  hand — a  foreign  land,  very  clear,  very  still, 
very  beautiful,  with  the  shadows  on  its  cliffs,  purple-blue  and  white. 
One  has  pleasant  memories  of  that  pleasant  land,  hardly  realises  that 
there  the  Queen's  English  and  the  Queen's  coins  are  not  current.  It 
seems  so  part  of  the  pageantry  of  English  skies  and  seas. 

It  was  other  guess  work  then.  The  east  wind  and  its  clearness 
meant  fair  passage  for  famine  and  slaughter-fraught  bottoms.  A  little 
white  sail,  out  there  near  those  twinkling  cliffs,  foreboded  flames  leaping 
up  after  night  had  closed  in.  If  one  were  a  townsman,  one  feared  for 
one's  wife,  one's  children,  one's  all  the  world,  one's  unprepared  soul.  If 
one  were  a  king,  one  feared  for  one's  soul  and  one's  throne.  One  kept 
in  order  one's  towers  along  the  deep. 

In    the    days    when    the    ravages    of  the    sea    grew   dire    for    old 


WINCHELSEA.  65 

Winchelsea  the  king  was  in  straits  himself — in  the  days  of  the  Barons' 
War.  The  first  outcry  of  the  town  went  unheard  among  the  clangour  of 
the  nation's  awakening.  The  men  of  Kent  have  always  been  sturdy 
upholders  of  their  rights,  and  that  little  bit  more  that  makes  rights  worth 
upholding.  Winchelsea  is  near  enough  to  Kent  for  its  townsmen  to  be 
infected  with  these  notions.  Thus,  when  before  his  defeat  and  capture 
at  Lewes,  Edward,  son  of  Henry  III.,  summoned  the  barons  of  the 
Five  Ports  to  swear  fealty  at  Shipway,  the  representatives  of  Winchel- 
sea refused  the  light  of  their  presence.  Even  after  the  prince's  escape 
and  victory  over  the  barons  of  the  realm,  Winchelsea  made  no  sub- 
mission. It  afforded  the  fugitives  from  Evesham  passage  out  of  the 
kingdom.  Thus  in  those  early  days  the  town  did  what  it  could  to 
forward  the  evolution  of  the  nation's  constitution,  the  nation's  freedom. 
Vengeance — the  princely  vengeance  of  those  days — fell  on  the  place. 
There  were  fines  and  hangings,  and,  worst  of  all,  the  walls  that  served 
against  sea  and  foes  were  destroyed.  The  prince  was  too  young  then 
to  understand  that  one  should  not  cut  off  one's  nose  to  spite  an 
offending  face. 

Edward  marched  away  again  after  a  short  stay  and  left  the  town 
to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  sea.  He  retained  pleasant  memories  of  the 
place.  One  does  as  much  for  the  places  in  which  one  has,  in  early  life, 
fought  and  had  the  best  of  it.  When  he  came  to  be  king  he  had 
frequent  occasion  for  passage  to  France,  to  his  lands  there.  He  had  to 
do  homage  for  them  at  times ;  at  times  to  do  some  harrying  in  the  lands 
of  his  overlord.  The  bailiffs,  barons,  jurats,  and  freemen  took  occasion 
of  his  nearness  to  them  when  he  was  in  the  neighbouring  ports,  of  his 
presence  when  he  lay  in  the  town  itself.  They  approached  him  with 
petitions.  He  was  to  build  them  a  new  town  in  a  safer  position.  He 
lent  a  complaisant  ear.  In  the  year  1280  he  set  about  the  acquisition 
of  the  land  on  which  the  town  now  stands. 

Lambarde  puts  the  matter  in  a  different  way.     As  a  true  man  of 

E 


66  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

Kent!  should,  he  despises  the  Sussex  folk,  and  inclines  to  believe 
that  Old  Winchelsea  never  was  a  Cinque  Port  at  all,  that  even  New 
Winchelsea  had  only  the  pains  without  the  privileges  of  the  Liberty. 
His  account  of  the  matter  is  as  follows  : — 

1268.  "  Neither  yet  will    I    deny,   but   that   soon  after    Winchelsey 

and  Rie  might  be  added  to  the  number  (of  the  C.P.'s).  For 
I  finde  in  an  old  record,  that  King  Henrie  the  third  took 
into  his  own  hands  (for  the  better  defence  of  the  realm)  the 
towns  of  Winchelsey  and  Rie,  which  belonged  to  the  Monas- 
terie  of  Fescampe  in  Normandie,  and  gave  therefor  in  exchange 
the  Manor  of  Chiltern  in  Glocester shire  and  divers  other  lands 
in  Lincolnshire.  This  he  did  partly  to  conceal  from  the  Priors, 
aliens,  the  intelligence  of  the  secret  affairs  of  his  Realm,  and 
partly  because  of  a  great  disobedience  and  excess  that  was 
committed  by  the  inhabitants  of  Winchelsey  against  Prince 
Edward  his  eldest  Son.  And  therefore,  although  I  can  easily 
be  led  to  think  that  he  submitted  them  to  the  order  and 
governance  of  the  Five  Ports,  yet  I  stand  doubtfull  whether 
he  made  them  Partners  of  their  privileges  or  no,  for  that 
had  been  a  preferment  and  no  punishment  to  them.  But  I 
suspect  rather  that  his  sonne  King  Edward  the  Firste  (by 
Winchelsey  whose  encouragement  and  aid  old  Winchelsey  was  afterwards 
builded  abandoned  and  the  now  town  builded)  was  the  first  that  ap- 
^^n-  parelled  them  with  that  pre-eminence."  ^ 

Here,  then,  is  an  end  of  Old  Winchelsey ;  for  the  king's  consent  to 

'  Some  of  the  Lambarde  family  actually  lived  of  Hastings.     According  to  the  1 190  charter  of 

at  Winchelsea,  and   are   buried   in   the   church  Richard  I.  she  found,  "  towards  our  full  service," 

there.     Lambarde  is  not,  of  course,  a  trustworthy  two  ships  which   were   included   with   those  of 

authority;  but  he  is  so  much  more  genial  a  writer  Hastings.     But  we  may  imagine  that  she  and 

than  topographers  of  Cooper's  stamp,  that  one  Rye  were  of  somewhat  more  importance   than 

must  prefer  him  for  purposes  of  quotation  where  the  other  members  of  Ports.     Richard  granted 

there  is  any  margin  of  doubt.  them  a  special  charter,  and  they  are  elsewhere 

2  Old  Winchelsea  was  a  member  of  the  Port  spoken  of  as  nobiliora  membra. 


WINCHELSEA.  67 

build  the  new  town  brought  about  the  final  downfall  of  the  old.  There 
can  no  trace  be  found  of  the  haven  under  the  hill.  It  must  have  stood 
on  some  small  rise  in  the  marshland,  much  as  Romney  stands,  or  per- 
haps on  a  spur  of  beach,  like  the  strange  settlement  at  Dungeness. 
Nowadays  shingle  or  mud-flat  are  alike  beneath  the  ooze  at  the  bottom 
of  the  shifty  shallows  of  the  Rother  mouth.  The  Rye  boats  fish  over 
the  house-floors.  I  remember  once  trawling  in  a  Yarmouth  boat  when 
the  net  caught  and  tore  in  an  invisible  something.  The  owner  swore, 
and  then  averred  that  that  something  was  Dunwich  church  steeple, 
Dunwich  having  shared  the  fate  of  Old  Winchelsea.  Perhaps  now, 
when  the  Rye  smacksman's  nets  are  caught,  he  swears  at  the  abbots  of 
Fecamp,  who  builded  Old  Winchelsea's  church  of  St  Giles. 

New  Winchelsea  was  many  years  in  the  building.  Mr  Inderwick,  one 
of  the  principal  barons  of  the  now  town,  has  made  a  laudable  attempt  to  let 
modern  readers  see  the  uprising  of  the  new  settlement.  The  king  said, 
"  Let  the  town  be,"  and  in  good  time  it  stood  on  its  little  hill.  The  king 
bought  the  land  for  it — land  lying  round  the  royal  manor  of  Iham ;  the 
Bishop  of  Ely,  Lord  Chancellor  of  the  kingdom,  drew  up  the  plans  for  it ; 
and  king  and  chancellor  did  their  best  to  render  it  a  model  medieval 
community.  How  well  they  did  their  work  one  may  realise  when  one 
learns  that  to-day  Winchelsea  and  London  are  the  only  unreformed  cor- 
porations in  the  kingdom,  when  one  sees  that  to-day  the  little  old  town 
stands  just  as  if  its  plan  had  been  drawn  up  yesterday. 

In  1288  the  town  was  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the  municipality 
of  Old  Winchelsea;  was  formally  declared  open,  in  fact,  by  the  king's 
treasurer.  The  king  favoured  his  people  in  this  place  :  they  had  their 
houses  rent-free  for  seven  years ;  ^  their  rights  and  privileges  were  defi- 

1  The  rent-roll  is  thus  subscribed  by  the  mayor  sis  ex  parte  domini  nostri  Regis  communitatem 

and  corporation  in  1290  :  "Item  dicti  Major  et  de  Wynchelsee  de  tota  nostra  terra  contenta  in 

jurati  dixerunt  quod  anno  regni  Regis  Edwardi  rotulis   illis  in   praesentia  vicecomitis  comitatus 

sextodecimo  citra  festum  sancti  Jacobi  Apostoli,  Sussexis  et  aliorum  nobilium  tam  militum  quam 

dominus  J.  de  Kyrkeby,  tunc  episcopus  Elienen-  aliorum  plurimorum  de  dicto  comitatu  in  seisinam 


68  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

nitely  confirmed ;  they  were  defended  from  the  influx  of  the  halt,  maimed, 
and  blind,  of  too  many  religious.  These  advantages  caused  the  lot  of  a 
Winchelsea  freeman  to  be  envied  by  the  peoples  of  less  favoured  spots- 
even  as  they  are  to-day.  Aspirants  poured  into  it  from  all  parts  of  Sussex, 
and  even  from  the  "  Sheeres,"  as  we  say  in  this  part  of  the  world,  meaning 
anywhere  that  is  not  just  Sussex  or  Kent.  The  price  of  tiles  manufactured 
at  Battle  rose  enormously ;  indeed  building  materials  of  all  kinds  were  in 
great  demand  in  the  vicinity.  Winchelsea  became  at  a  bound  a  busy 
haunt  of  men,  a  thriving  city. 

Its  position  favoured  it.  It  stood  then  very  much  as  it  now  stands. 
It  covered  perhaps  more  of  the  triangular  hill-top,  the  houses  running 
almost  down  to  the  western  gate.  To  the  north  it  stood  upon  a  bluff 
overhanging  an  arm  of  the  sea ;  to  the  east  the  hill  sloped  precipitously 
down  to  the  sea  itself.  From  both  these  sides  it  was  difficult  to 
approach  in  the  face  of  armed  resistance.  A  road  was  cut  steeply 
down  to  the  quays  on  each  of  the  northern  extremities  of  the  town. 
These  roads  were  topped  by  strong  gates  which  still  remain  —  the 
Strand  and  Ferry  gates.  It  touched  the  land  towards  Hastings  ;  here 
a  road,  also  protected  by  a  gate,  served  for  the  in  -  and  -  outgoing  of 
traffic.  The  height  of  the  sea-headlands  was  added  to  by  earthworks 
shoulder  high ;  the  slopes  towards  the  land  were  fortified  by  stone  walls 
and  a  moat  adjoining  the  Land  gate. 

In  spite  of  the  king's  precautions  against  the  religious,  the  town  soon 
had  a  plethora  of  the  kind.  The  queen,  who  loved  the  order  of  Black 
Friars — she  founded  the  monastery  that  gave  its  name  to  a  dismal  quarter 
of  London  town — founded  another  in  Winchelsea.  William  de  Bucking- 
ham soon  afterwards  re-established  the  Grey  Friars  in  the  place.     There 

posuit  ex  parte  domini  Regis  et  dictae  communi-  The  rents  paid  varied  from  one  penny  up  to 

talis,  repromittentes  quod  a  solucione  dictae  aren-  tenpence,  this  latter  being  paid  for  the  eighth 

tacienis  a  festo  supra  nominato  vsque  in  septem  part  of  an  acre  "  et  xiii.  virgas."     The  whole  rent 

annos  proximos    subsequenter    quieta    esset  et  for  the  town  amounted  to  something  more  than 

absoluta."  ^14. 


WINCHELSEA.  69 

were,  besides,  two^  parish  churches  and  a  votive  chapel  of  St  Leonard, 
Besides  religious,  the  town  contained  court  officials,  shipwrights,  wall- 
builders,  water-carriers,  chapmen,  salt-makers,  cobblers,  thatchers,  fisher- 
men, basket-makers,  and  representative  arts-and-craftsmen  galore.  It  was, 
in  fact,  self-supporting  and  much  more ;  a  proper  medieval  township ;  a 
first  and  second  line  of  defence  for  the  country ;  a  channel  for  imported 
and  exported  wealth. 

At  its  foundation  it  enjoyed  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  other 
Ports  and  the  name  of  an  Antient  Town.  It  provided  for  the  king's  use 
ten  ships  out  of  the  fifty-four  of  the  total  Cinque  Ports'  navy,  this  at  a  time 
when  Hastings  found  only  three.  Rye  five,  Hythe  five,  and  Folkestone 
seven.      It  was  second  to  Dover,  which  found  nineteen.^ 

During  the  reign  of  Edward  I.  the  town  played  its  part  in  the  history 
of  the  country.  Edward  loved  the  place.  He  was  upon  the  whole  a  far- 
seeing  publicist ;  understood  that  for  its  ultimate  prosperity  a  country 
depended  rather  upon  its  powers  of  work  than  upon  its  fighting  strength. 


1  Lambarde    says   that    three    were    standing  handled    by   the  populace.     Perhaps   Wickliffe 

within  mortal  memory  in  1575.     I  remember  to  had  supporters  in  the  town. 

have  read  somewhere  that  there  were  at  one  time  ^  The  fact  that  Winchelsea  at  this  time  could 

seven,  which  seems  absurd.     "  An  Inhabitant "  provide  ten  ships  and  yet  be  unaided  in  its  con- 

of  Hastings,  writing  in  the  early  years  of  this  tributions  by  any  limb  or  feeder,  points  to  the 

century,  claims  to  have  discovered  vestiges  of  great  wealth  of  the  town.     The  whole  question  of 

fourteen  chapels  and  churches.     This  also  seems  the  grounds  on  which  the  Ports  were  assessed 

to  overshoot  the  mark.     It  is  possible  that  Lam-  seems  to  be  wrapt  in  mystery.     Thus   Folkes- 

barde  is  right,  and  that  another  parish  church  did  stone,  which  never  was  a  wealthy  town,  provides 

exist  at  one  time.     On  the  other  hand,  his  in-  more  ships  than  the  Port  which  it  fed.     This  was 

formant   may  have  had  hazy  ideas   as   to    the  in  the  time  of  Stephen  Penchester's  government 

distinction    between     parish     and     conventual  of  Dover  Castle.     In  a  later  instrument  of  Hythe, 

churches.      Anyhow,  all  trace  of  the  third  has  Winchelsea  is    represented    as    providing   only 

now  disappeared.     The  Grey  Friars   had  been  three    ships    out    of   the    total   contribution   of 

established  in  Old  Winchelsea.     An  old  account  Hastings  —  twenty-one  — from  which   we    may 

of  them  which  I  possess,  states  that  De  Bucking-  imagine    that    Winchelsea    later    sank    to    the 

ham  materially  aided  them  in  their  new  home.  position  of  feeder  to  Hastings.      Cooper  quotes 

The  Black  Friars  seem  to  have  made  themselves  a  record  of  1347  which  attributes  to  Winchelsea 

unpopular  in   the  place,    for    in    the    reign    of  no  less  than  twenty-one  vessels. 
Edward    III.    they  were  several   times  roughly 


70  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

It  was  during  the  years  that  saw  the  growth  of  the  new  Winchelsea  that 
the  constitution  of  modern  England  was  rough  -  moulded  in  its  present 
shape.  In  Edward's  time  mercantile  morality,  trade  itself,  became 
possible  with  the  Statute  of  Merchants.  Edward  himself  was  the  first  king 
since  the  Conquest  to  crave  his  subjects'  love — and  to  have  it.  It  was 
during  Edward's  reign  that  the  first  Parliament  met  containing  representa- 
tives of  the  burgess  class.  Winchelsea  saw  a  memorable  meeting  between 
king  and  people  in  1297.  Edward  was  awaiting  the  barons'  contingent  for 
the  expedition  to  the  Low  Countries.  The  barons  on  arrival  flatly  refused 
to  sail  from  the  Port  unless  the  king  reaffirmed  the  Magna  Charta.  The 
king  perforce  consented.  The  charter,  it  is  true,  had  been  confirmed  times 
without  number  by  Henry  III.,  and  had  been  as  often  by  him  disregarded. 
But  Edward  had  for  his  motto,  "  Keep  troth."  He  kept  it.  His  consent 
turned  down  a  new  leaf  in  the  book  of  history.  If  one  wished  for  an  end- 
piece  for  the  chapter  of  Norman  feudal  rule,  one  should  vignette  the 
ancient  town  in  which  Edward  gave  his  promise ;  for  very  soon  after 
the  citizens  of  such  places  began  to  play  their  part  in  the  making  of 
history. 

The  king,  we  hear,  had  another  unpleasant  experience  in  the  place. 
As  he  rode  along  the  earthworks  above  the  harbour  his  horse  took  fright 
at  the  arms  of  a  windmill — perhaps,  like  Richard  of  Almaine,  he  thought 
they  were  mangonels.  King  and  horse  fell  on  to  the  road  along  the  quay 
below.  But  the  horse  did  not  lose  his  feet,  or  the  king  his  seat,  "so  that 
the  king  turned  him  round  with  the  rein  and  rode  him  straight  up  to  the 
gate."  1  He  lived  for  ten  years  more,  so  that  the  shock  cannot  have  been 
over-dangerous. 

These  were  the  days  of  Winchelsea's  glory — the  days  of  the  three 
Edwards.  Edward  II.  confirmed  the  town's  charter.  Of  Edward  III. 
Mr  Inderwick  says  :  "  He  spent  almost  as  much  time  there  as  his  grand- 
father did.     He  used  the  port  of  Winchelsea  in  passing  and  repassing 

1  Thomas  of  Walsingliam.     Lambarde  of  course  gives  another  version  of  the  story. 


WINCHELSEA.  71 

from  between  England  and  France,  and  when,  in  May  1329,  he  sailed 
from  Dover,  he  selected  a  Winchelsea  ship  to  carry  him  and  his  suite. 
Numerous  orders,  writs,  and  proclamations,  signed  by  the  king  and  tested 
at  Winchelsea,  show  the  frequency  of  his  visits."^ 

Winchelsea  ships  must  have  been  in  favour  with  the  royalty  of  other 
days;  for  in  one  sea-fight  Edward  III.  and  the  Black  Prince  each  com- 
manded a  Winchelsea  ship  ;  and  it  was  on  the  Gabrielle  de  Winchelsey  that 
Henry  V.  sailed  to  his  victory  at  Agincourt. 

But  Winchelsea  had  its  bad  quarter  hours  under  Edward  III.  It  had 
grown  so  rich  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  opposite  coast  descended  upon  it 
again  and  again.  Three  several  times  it  was  burned  and  ravaged ;  its 
saltmakers,  cobblers,  and  gold  and  silver  embroiderers  were  butchered 
along  with  their  wives  and  children.  The  town  in  part  recovered  from 
these  attacks.  Town -building  was  an  easier  matter  then  than  now.  All 
that  was  needed  was  a  sufficiency  of  timber,  which  what  remained  of  the 
forest  of  Andred  supplied,  and  a  sufficiency  of  mud,  which  is  nowhere 
difficult  to  find.  Burning  and  harrying  were  current  coin  too.  The  towns- 
men were  not  so  overcome  by  despair  as  Londoners  to-day  might  be.  The 
Antient  Town  was  rebuilded.^ 

Under  Richard's  deposer,  Henry  IV.,  Winchelsea  became  the  principal 
port  of  entry  for  French  wines.     The  whole  town  was  honeycombed  with 

cellars. 

"Ah,  with  the  grape  my  fading  Life  provide 

And  wash  the  Body  whence  the  Life  has  died." 
The  Antient  Town,  like  the  singer  of  the  Rubaiyat,  provided  its  fading 

1  According  to  the  Sussex  Arch.  Coll.,  Winchel-  attacks,  successful  and  unsuccessful,  of  either 
sea  supplied  21  ships  and  596  men  for  the  siege  party.  What  is  certain  is  that  both  Winchelsea 
of  Calais  in  1347,  more  than  four  times  as  many  and  the  French  towns  carried  on  incessant 
as  did  Hastings,  and  more  than  any  other  port  warfare  whether  the  high  contracting  Powers 
in  the  kingdom,  save  London.  Winchelsea  of  either  nation  were  at  war  or  no.  I  shall  have 
also  built  a  number  of  the  king's  own  ships.  occasion  to  give  a  fuller  account  of  the  French 

2  It    is    difficult    to   distinguish   between   the  attacks  in  the  chapter  on  Rye. 


;2  THE  CINQUE  PORTS. 

life  with  the  grape  ;  but  by  that  time  the  Bird  of  Time  had  but  a  little  time 
to  flutter.     The  bird  was  on  the  wing,^ 

It  was  not  the  onslaughts  of  the  French  or  the  Spaniards  or  the 
Scots  that  humbled  the  pride  of  the  place.  It  was  its  own  lack  of  fore- 
sight. The  sea  was  receding  fast — that  could  not  be  helped.  But  the 
townsmen  allowed  the  filling  up  of  the  harbour  to  be  swiftened.  The 
Rother  of  those  days  was  navigable  up  to  the  village  of  Bodiam  one 
must  remember — twenty  odd  miles  of  it ;  but  cultivation  and  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  trees  of  the  forest  of  Andred  under  the  axe  had  already 
diminished  the  flow  of  its  waters.  Thus  the  port  of  Winchelsea  was 
in  danger  enough.  To  make  matters  worse  the  sailors  themselves  helped 
to  stop  up  the  channel.     Thus  one  may  read  :  ^ — 

"  De portu  de  Winchelsee  providendo :  The  King  to  his  well- beloved, 
&c.,  Robert  Etchyngham,  Robert  Oxenbrigge,  Henry  Home,  and  William 
Bertyn,  greeting.  It  is  given  to  us  to  understand  that  many  mariners,  both 
native  and  foreign,  daily  trading  to  the  port  of  Winchelsea  in  ships  and 
other  vessels,  have  "ftlled  up  and  obstructed  the  channel  of  the  said  port 
from  a  place  called  Camber  as  far  as  Bodiam,  with  stones,  sand,  and  other 
ballast,  so  that  vessels  laden  with  merchandise  have  been  unable  to  enter 
conveniently  the  port  as  formerly,  which  tends  to  the.  destruction  of  our 
town  and  its  adjacent  haven.  We,  wishing  to  see  to  this  matter,  com- 
mission you,  or  two  or  three  of  you,  to  circumspectly  and  diligently 
supervise  the  said  port  from  Camber  to  Bodiam." 

1  The  sudden  growth  of  the  vogue  of  St  James  For  when  they  take  the  sea 

of  Compostella  made  Winchelsea  flourish  for  a  ^^  Sandwich,  or  Winchelsee, 

time.     Energetic  Winchelsea  men  seem  to  have  ^^  ^""°*''  °'  "''"'^''^  "'^' ''  ''^' 

c        ..  11   J   .^u     /-     1       r  ..     J       •       1  •  r  Theyr  hearts  begin  to  fayle." 

forestalled  the  Cook  of  to-day  m  the  service  of 

the  Galician  saint.      In  1434  no  less  than  2433      ^^^  "^"'^  °^  ^'  J^'"^^  •'^^^  o"  ""til  well  into  this 

pilgrims  set  out  for  Spain.      As  the  old  ballad      f^^ntury.     Borrow  mentions  a  Swiss  pilgrim  who, 

had  it—  '"  Catholic  countries,  managed  to  earn  a  pre- 

■'Men„,ayleveallgamys  '^"°"'    '"^'"^   ''>'    P°^'"&    ^=    "^^^in?   f-""'"    *« 

That  saylen  to  St  Jamys,  shnne.    But  Wmchelsea  does  not  seem  to  have 

For  many  a  man  hit  gramys  sent  any  ships  there  after  the  year  1456. 

When  they  begin  to  sayle.  »  Rot.  Pat.,  12  May,  I  Henry  IV. 


WINCHELSEA.  73 

They  are  told  to  find  places  for  the  discharge  of  ballast  where  the 
course  of  the  river  may  not  be  interfered  with,  and  to  see  that  no  one 
disobeys  these  orders.  But  it  was  too  late.  The  flow  of  the  Rother 
was  checked — nay,  even  diverted  towards  Rye;  the  sea  receded  farther 
and  farther.  For  a  time  it  left  open  a  small  nook  to  the  westward  of  the 
old  harbour,  but  in  a  little  while  that  too  was  silted  up  and  the  place  died. 
Elizabeth,  in  one  of  her  progresses,  visited  Winchelsea,  and  with  her  half- 
sardonic  humour  styled  it  "  Little  London."  She  was  overcome,  we  are 
told,  by  the  grave  bearing  of  the  mayor,  barons,  and  jurats.  One  imagines 
her  laughing  behind  her  handkerchief  at  the  grave  men  in  scarlet  and 
ermine  who  played  so  solemnly  at  being  serious  personages.  The  health 
on  their  faces  must  have  struck  her  too,  for  in  the  times  when  Great  London 
was  visited  by  plague  she  sent  her  trained  bands  for  safety  to  Little 
London.^ 

And  so  the  town  vanishes  from  the  pages  of  history  in  the  large. 
It  had  played  its  part.  It  vanishes  under  the  tide ;  but  for  a  century 
or  so  it  struggled  under  water,  bobbing  up  to  the  surface  as  the  drowning 
do.  So  late  as  1692  we  find  the  town  petitioning  the  king  to  reopen  the 
harbour.  But  the  matter  was  beyond  the  power  of  kings.  The  petition 
was  indorsed,  "Nothing  to  be  done."^ 

Evelyn,  in  1660,  writes  of  the  place  as  "all  in  rubbish,  a  few  despicable 
hovels  and  cottages  only  standing."  But  the  town  has  done  its  best  to 
rise  again  since  those  days.  What  all  the  king's  horses  and  all  the  king's 
men  could  not  do,  it  tried  to  do  for  itself.  Perhaps  the  Huguenots  helped 
it.      They  certainly  established  a  manufactory  of  cambrics  which  lasted 

1  Great  London  had  before  this  helped  Little  Their  petition  was  backed  by  the  merchants  of 

London  in  the  hour  of  need.     After  the  burning  a  number  of  towns,  and  in  1701  a  bill  was  passed 

of  Winchelsea  in  1357,  London  opened  a  Mansion-  by  the  Commons  sanctioning  an  elaborate  scheme 

house  fund — or  its  fourteenth-century  equivalent  for  reopening  the  harbour.      It  was,  of  course, 

— and  provided  the  Antient  Town  with  ships  and  thrown  out  by  the  Lords.     In  1722  works  were 

men  for  its  retaliatory  descent  upon  the  French  sanctioned,  and  actually  begun  near  Cliff  End. 

coast.  They  proved  a  failure,  however. 

'  Rye  and  Winchelsea  petitioned  again  in  1699. 


74  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

into  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  occupied  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  little  town.  The  last  that  we  hear  of  them  is  that, 
"after  exhausting  the  greatest  part  of  their  capital  in  erecting  houses, 
workshops,  and  two  large  houses  for  the  principal  managers,  the  pro- 
prietors failed ;  and  the  whole  was  let  to  Messrs  Kirkmam,  Nouaille,  and 
Clay,  who  established  an  Italian  crape  manufactory,  and  carried  it  on  for 
a  number  of  years  with  great  success.  Since  that  has  been  given  up 
the  buildings  have  been  converted  into  barracks  for  the  troops  now 
quartered  there." 

The  houses  still  remain  in  the  place  called  Barrack  Square.  "  The 
bricks  are  alive  to  this  day  to  testify  to  it."  They  form  a  street  of  high, 
weather-beaten,  red-tile  houses,  with  a  little  of  the  forbidding  aspect 
that  streets  in  certain  French  towns  possess  —  perhaps  because  they 
stand  so  level  with  the  roadway,  as  if  their  careful  French  builders 
did  not  leave  an  inch  of  space  uncovered  for  the  sake  of  the  semblance 
of  liberality. 

The  threat  of  invasion  from  Boulogne  brought  the  troops  into  the 
town,  and  their  presence  restored  to  it  some  of  its  former  liveliness. 
The  officers  built  houses  for  themselves,  and  Winchelsea  was  galvanised 
into  new  life.  The  Hastings  guide  that  I  have  just  quoted  states  that 
"  this  place,  though  now  so  small,  contains  a  number  of  genteel  families 
and  some  good  houses."  This  was  in  1804.  But  the  days  of  invasion 
from  Boulogne  passed  over,  the  troops  went  away,  and  with  them  most 
of  the  genteel  families — the  Rev.  Mr  Hollingberry  and  Francis  Denne, 
Esq.,  who  occupied  Mariteau  and  Perriteau  Houses,  which  the  former 
proprietors  of  the  cambric  manufactory  had  built  for  themselves.  Even 
in  their  day  the  Monday  and  Friday  cattle  and  meat  markets  had  dis- 
appeared, but  with  them  went  the  annual  fair  for  stock  and  peddlery  goods 
on  the  14th  of  May. 

The  place  sank  into  despair — lethargy,  if  you  will — in  which  it 
remained  for  half  a  century.     Nowadays   "genteel  families"  come  there 


WINCHELSEA.  75 

in  search  of  health  and  quiet,  which  they  find  in  abundance.  A  lace 
manufactory  has  been  established  by  people  that  wish  to  revive  the 
industries  that  Mariteau  and  Perriteau  tried  to  establish.  But  it  all 
goes  very  sleepily  and  quietly  there.  Perhaps  the  place  is  only  resting, 
waiting  for  the  inconstant  sea's  return,  waiting  for  the  days  when  a 
new  threat  of  French  invasion  shall  cause  its  walls  to  stand  up  again,  its 
streets  to  be  gay  with  the  scarlet  and  yellow  of  war-times. 


76 


CHAPTER    V. 

WINCHELSEA   AND   ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD. 

"  Can  I  forget  you,  being  as  you  are 
So  beautiful  among  the  pleasant  fields 
In  which  you  stand?" 

I  KNOW  of  no  place  more  prodigal  of  pleasant  impressions  than  this 
old  town,  which  offers  itself  so  open  to  the  sky  upon  its  little  hill. 
Consider  it  beneath  a  summer  sun  and  it  recalls  the  May -day  riot 
of  colour  and  bright  laughter  of  a  medieval  township.  Under  a  grey 
sky  it  will  make  you  ponder  on  the  cracks  and  crannies  of  the  castles 
of  the  old  time  before  us.  Here  the  Georgian,  Elizabethan,  and  the 
Early  English  crumble  into  one  harmony  of  grey  and  red  and  russet. 

Go  out  from  the  place,  down  the  sea  hill,  and  looking  back  from 
the  marsh  you  will  see  the  Antient  Town  from  its  most  striking  side. 
A  steep  road  that  once  led  up  from  the  quays  ascends  to  the  Strand 
Gate.  This  road  cuts  diagonally  [cater  is  the  local  word)  the  green 
girdle  of  hill  on  which  the  town  stands.  On  the  far  left  there  is  a 
mass  of  green  leafage ;  then  a  low  grey  wall,  a  grey,  red-roofed  house 
with  its  garden  cutting  up  the  side  of  the  hill ;  then  the  majestic  old 
gate  itself — a  grey  patch,  picked  out  with  the  green  tracery  of  climbing 
plants  ;  then  a  fretted,  peaked,  and  gabled  red  line  of  roofs,  dominating 
a  profusion  of  foliage.  This — with  a  gay  blue  sky  above  and  the  sun- 
light bringing  out  the  red  of  the  roofs — is  the  Winchelsea  that  forms 
the  background  of  Millais's  picture  of  the  "  Blind  Girl." 


MOONRISE. 


i-^-MAKI 


;8  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

it  remains  a  singularly  dignified  building.  Seen  as  one  enters  the  town 
from  the  Hastings  side,  up  the  Broad  Walk,  it  has  that  emotional 
quality  that  belongs  to  the  highest  art.  It  is  grey,  old,  four-square, 
and  absolutely  sincere  and  really  more  satisfying  than,  say,  the  Fried- 
ensaal  at  Muenster  or  the  Hotel  de  Ville  of  Paris,  or  any  other  of 
the  more  elaborate  of  the  tour  de  force  show -places  of  the  sort.  It 
fulfilled  in  the  old  days  the  functions  of  municipal  meeting-house,  prison, 
and,  on  the  occasion  of  a  state  visit,  of  the  royal  lodging.  Such  restora- 
tion of  the  building  as  has  been  carried  out  is  not  much  worse  than 
seems  to  be  inevitable.  There  remain  at  present  on  the  ground-floor 
part  of  the  old  prison  cell  and  the  court-room,  which  is  now  used  as  a 
reading-room.  On  the  upper  floor  is  the  great  meeting-hall,  where  nowa- 
days on  Easter  Mondays  the  election  of  mayor,  barons,  and  jurats  takes 
place.  On  the  wall  farthest  from  the  door  is  a  thirteenth-century  fresco 
lately  discovered,  which  portrays  St  Leonard  of  Winchelsea,  a  Norman 
saint  who  had  power  over  the  wind  and  waves,  and  of  whom  I  shall 
have  more  to  say.  In  this  room  is  preserved  the  ancient  horn,  which 
is  the  outward  and  visible  sign  of  incorporation.  Winchelsea  possesses 
a  pair  of  maces  of  very  fine  silversmith's  work,  and  the  town  seal  is 
also  extant.  Unfortunately  the  arrangements  for  the  custody  of  these 
insignia  have  not  always  left  nothing  to  be  desired ;  for  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century  one  of  the  mayors,  who  had  got  into  trouble  through 
tampering  with  electoral  matters,  broke  one-half  of  the  town  seal,  which 
had  to  be  replaced — in  facsimile,  we  are  assured — before  he  could  be 
prosecuted.  In  later  times  a  distinguished  visitor  deemed  it  expedient 
to  disappear  from  the  town  in  a  piano  -  case,  and  about  the  same 
time  there  disappeared  the  mayoral  chain  and  the  silver  oar,  which 
gives  the  mayor  the  right  to  stop  all  ships  sailing  up  or  down 
Channel.^ 

'   This    is    the    local    legend.       One    of    the      arms   of  the    Guldeford    family    and    an    eigh- 
town's    silver    oars    still    exists.       It   bears   the      teenth-century  hall-mark. 


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fe^. 

WINCHELSEA   AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  79 

It  is  perhaps  a  little  to  be  regretted,  in  the  interests  of  the  gaiety 
of  nations,  that  this  silver  oar  should  have  been  lost.  The  right  to 
stop  ships  has  not  been  much  exercised  in  late  years,  though  in  the 
early  part  of  the  century  mayors  in  whose  cellars  the  smugglers  had 
neglected  to  leave  a  keg  or  two  occasionally  used  the  oar  in  the  interests 
of  the  preventive  officers.  It  amuses  one  to  imagine  a  mayor  who 
should  take  it  into  his  head  to  cause  international  complications  by 
summoning  a  foreign  warship  or  a  transatlantic  liner  to  an  inopportune 
halt.  But,  alas !  the  erstwhile  great  navy  of  the  Antient  Town  has 
now  entirely  disappeared.  Of  late  years  it  had  been  represented  by 
one  solitary  fisherman,  a  most  amusing  and  epigrammatic  person, 
who  a  few  short  months  ago  gave  up  his  employment  to  become 
the  doorkeeper  of  a  Southwark  chemical  works.  So  that  how  the 
mayor  might  reach  the  ships  sailing  up  or  down  Channel  I  do  not 
presume  to  suggest. 

Winchelsea  has  the  distinction  of  being,  along  with  London,  the 
only  unreformed  corporation  in  England.  It  elects  its  mayor,  barons, 
and  jurats  in  solemn  secrecy  on  Easter  Monday,  and  not  on  the  9th 
of  November.  In  this  latter  peculiarity  it  stands  alone — even  London 
has  to  conform  to  the  municipal  habits  of  the  rest  of  the  kingdom  in 
that  respect.  Flowers,  too,  are  strewn  in  the  path  of  the  mayor  as  he 
leaves  the  Court  Hall  after  his  installation.^ 

Next  to  the  Court  Hall  in  point  of  antiquity  comes  the  parish 
church  of  St  Thomas  of  Canterbury  (or  The  Apostle,  as  he  was  styled 
after  the  Reformation).  This  is  the  very  heart  of  the  town,  standing 
alone  in  the  spacious  square,  of  which  the  Court  Hall  is  at  the  north- 
western angle.  The  church,  if  not  so  unique  an  architectural  achievement, 
is  almost  more  imposing  than  the  Hall — this,  not  so  much  by  dint  of 
architecture  as  of  a  certain  tranquil  suggestiveness.     It  is  much  debated 

^  There  is  an  amusing  description  of  this  ceremony  in  the  Family  Letters  of  D.  G.  Rossetti, 
written  in  1850  or  thereabouts. 


82  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

Outside  the  western  wall  of  the  churchyard  stands  Wesley's  tree, 
under  which  the  great  preacher  delivered  his  last  open-air  discourse.^ 
The  tree,  like  much  else  in  the  town,  is  now  grown  decrepit,  and  is 
kept  together  by  iron  bands  and  chains  of  dubious  efficacy.  On  the 
south-west  corner  of  the  square,  and  opposite  the  house  called  the  Elms, 
is  a  small  enclosure,  of  which  a  glimpse  is  afforded  through  a  grated  door. 
This  is  the  Jews'  market,  and  once  formed  part  of  the  Winchelsea 
Ghetto.2  The  Antient  Town  was  one  of  the  few  places  in  the  kingdom 
which  the  chosen  people  were  allowed  to  frequent  during  the  long  space 
of  years  that  saw  their  exile  from  England.  Even  here  their  intercourse 
with  the  townsmen  and  their  trading- rights  were  restricted  by  rigidly 
enforced  statutes. 

Of  the  medieval  fortifications  of  the  town  very  little  now  remains 
save  the  three  gates  spanning  the  roads  to  Rye,  Udimore,  and  Pett. 
Of  these,  the  most  imposing  is  the  Strand  (Rye)  Gate;  but  both  the 
Ferry  (Udimore)  and  Land  (Pett)  gates  have  picturesque  merits  of  their 
own.  Even  nowadays,  if  you  will  make  the  tour  of  the  town,  you  will 
see  how  strong  a  fastness  Winchelsea  must  have  been  whilst  its  walls 
still  stood,  and  when  water  was  all  around  it. 

Just  beside  the  Ferry  Gate,  projecting  over  the  Station  Road,  are 
to  be  seen  the  remains  of  the  Roundel  Tower,  in  which  the  harbour  watch 
was  stationed ;  and,  in  the  playing-fields  which  run  from  the  vicarage  to 
the  mill,  as  well  as  beside  the  Pett  Gate,  the  outlines  of  moated  earth- 
works may  be  traced. 

'  The  entry  in  Wesley's  diary  is  as  follows  :  Wesleyans    are    still   numerous   in   the   Antient 

"•jtk  Oct.  lygo. —  .    .   .    I  went  over  to  that  poor  Town. 

skeleton   of  Ancient  Winchelsea.     It  is  beauti-  ^  The  Jews  seem  to  have  been  encouraged  by 

fully  situated  on  the  top  of  a  steep  hill,  &c.  .  .  .  the  townsmen,  for,  on  several  occasions,  writs 

I  stood  under  a  large  tree  and  called  to  most  of  were  issued  to  the  mayor,  &c.,  directing  their 

the  inhabitants  of  the  town  :   '  The  Kingdom  of  expulsion.     They  must   have  been  a  source  of 

God  is  at  hand  :  repent  and  believe  the  Gospel.'  profit  to  the  town — at  Rye,  at  least,  they  were 

It  seemed  as  if  all   that    heard    were,   at    the  charged  three  and  a  half  times  the  usual  fee  for 

present,   almost    persuaded    to    be    Christians."  entering  the  harbour. 


WINCHELSEA   AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  83 

Near  the  Roundel  Tower  stood  St  Leonard's  Chapel.  The  saint,  as  I 
have  said,  was  of  Norman  origin,  and  had  power  over  the  winds  and 
waves.  You  will  notice  that,  as  he  is  portrayed  in  the  fresco  in  the 
Court  Hall,  he  holds  in  his  left  hand  a  kind  of  weather-cock  or  wind- 
mill. This  same  vane  was  preserved  in  St  Leonard's  Chapel,  and  the 
faithful  who  had  business  on  the  great  waters  were  accustomed,  due 
offering  made,  to  turn  this  vane  in  the  direction  of  the  wind  that  best 
suited  their  ends.  After  a  time  that  wind  was  sure  to  arrive ;  and  in 
those  old  days  people  were  even  less  pressed  for  time  than  they  are, 
or  should  be,  in  the  Winchelsea  of  to-day. 

Below  the  chapel — that  is  to  say,  at  the  foot  of  the  Station  hill — St 
Leonard's  Well  bubbles  out  of  the  earth.  They  say  that  the  good  saint 
found  that  spring  when  all  the  land  cried  out  for  rain.  So,  maybe,  the 
vane  was  the  prototype  of  the  divining-rod.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  saying 
is  that  whoso  drinks  of  St  Leonard's  Well  will  never  rest  till  he  drink 
again.  That  is  true  enough ;  but  I  have  found  it  even  more  so  of  that 
other  well  to  which  one  descends  by  the  steep  path  at  the  end  of  Barrack 
Square.^ 

A  more  delightful  place  for  dalliance  than  is  the  Holy  Well  it  would 
be  difficult  to  find.  You  may  sit  on  the  coping-stone,  hidden  on  the 
mid-face  of  the  little  cliff,  and  look  out  to  Rye  over  the  marsh  levels, 
and  in  a  little  while  you  will  forget  all  the  troubles  of  this  weary  world. 
For  the  place  is  sovereign  against  the  heartache.  So  Queen  Elizabeth 
found  it  when  she  visited  the  town.  Indeed,  to  such  an  extent  did  she 
revel  in  this  spot  that  she  bestowed  upon  it  her  own  august  name  in 
place  of  its  former  sobriquet,  the  Holy.  But  whether  the  well  is  any 
the  less  holy  on  account  of  her  visit  I  should  not  care  to  say. 

Another  delightful  place  for  love — or  aught  else — in  idlesse  is  the 
Look-Out,  which  one  approaches  by  the  steps  confronting  one,   as  one 

1  The  names  assigned  to  the  wells  differ  vastly.      Holy  Well.    Mr  Inderwick,  however,  calls  it  St 
I  have  always  heard  this  well  referred   to  as      Katherine's. 


84  THE   CINQUE   PORTS. 

enters  the  town  through  the  Strand  Gate.  Here,  on  a  rainy  day,  one  may 
sit  and  enjoy  life  at  leisure.  The  marsh  stretches  out  below  one's  feet ; 
beyond  that,  a  narrow  strip  of  sea  and  the  narrower  strip  of  pebble-land 
on  which  stands  Dungeness  lighthouse ;  beyond  that  again  more  sea,  and 
then  the  cliffs  near  Folkestone,  The  whole  expanse  of  the  Romney 
Marsh  is  visible  on  the  left,  and,  on  the  right,  the  full  sweep  of  the 
Channel.  One  may  sit  there  and  lazily  read,  glancing  occasionally  at 
the  small  figures  of  the  people  wandering  along  the  road  towards  the 
sea.  One  may,  if  one  cares,  speculate  on  who  they  are,  where  they 
are  going,  why  they  are  none  of  them  a  whit  better  than  they  should  be, 
and,  if  it  is  a  soaking  day,  on  how  wet  they  will  get.  For  the  patron 
of  this  nook  is,  without  a  doubt,   Dame  Gossip. 

As  I  have  said,  the  houses  of  Winchelsea  cannot  boast  of  any  re- 
mote antiquity.  Probably  the  oldest  is  the  old  Workhouse  at  the  foot 
of  the  sea  hill,  which  is  perhaps  Elizabethan.  The  town  was  a  good 
deal  pulled  about  in  days  when  there  was  fear  of  Napoleonic  invasion. 
Traces  of  the  military  occupation  linger  in  names  like  Barrack  Square 
(which  used  to  be  known  as   Bear  Place)  and  Magazine  House. 

It  was  in  Magazine  House  that  Thackeray  lodged;  but  indeed  the 
muster-roll  of  the  great  that  have  lived  in,  lodged  in,  and  loved  the 
place  is  a  long  one,  ranging  from  William  the  Conqueror  to  Miss  Ellen 
Terry,  who  still  dwells  there.  Millais  painted  two  of  his  best  -  known 
pictures  there,  and  there  Rossetti,  Ruskin,  and  William  Morris  visited 
him.  Thus  one  may  love  the  Antient  Town  "  by  authority  "  if  one  is  so 
minded. 

In  the  tiny  cottage  attached  to  Magazine  House  Thackeray  thought 
of  Denis  Duval  as  dwelling,  and  in  the  house  that  the  present  Friars 
has  replaced,  the  Westons,  Denis's  villains,  actually  lived.  Very  real 
and  actual  villains  they  were.  I  have  before  me  a  pamphlet  history  of 
their  exploits,  written  whilst  they  lay  under  sentence  of  death  in  the 
Stone   Jug — "the    whole    exhibiting   a   most    striking    view   of   Human 


WINCHELSEA   AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  85 

Nature,"  says  the  Impartial  Hand  that  penned  it — "  in  a  series  of 
Frauds,  Villainies,  and  Highway  Robberies,  scarcely  to  be  paralleled  in 
the  Annals  of  Infamy." 

The  Westons  had  performed  their  crowning  feat  —  the  gutting  of 
the  Bristol  mail  upon  a  bank  day — when  they  retired  to  Winchelsea  to 
spend  an  honoured  old  age  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  savings. 

"  But,"  says  the  Impartial  Hand,  "  nothing  could  satisfy  their 
covetous  minds  but  new  methods  of  fraud  and  villainy.  They  still  prac- 
tised their  game  of  forging  notes,  &c.,  and  by  virtue  of  them  obtained 
goods  and  cash  to  a  high  amount. 

"  Besides,   they  even  suffered  their  avarice  to  prove  their  ruin  by 

refusing  the  payment  of  their  just  debts.     Mr  D ,  the  jeweller,  long 

applied,  in  vain,  for  the  payment  of  his  demand,  and  was  obliged  to 
enter  process  against  them. 

"On  Sat.,  Apr.  14,  1782,  the  officers  met  our  two  heroes  on  the 
road  at  Rye ;  and,  intent  on  the  execution  of  the  writ,  attempted  to 
pull  Joseph  from  his  horse.  The  two  brothers  immediately  presented 
a  case  of  pistols,  and,  clapping  spurs  to  their  horses,  rode  off  to  the 
metropolis. 

"  A  gentleman  who  was  then  at  Rye  had  beheld  the  transaction,  but 
was  so  much  taken  up  in  viewing  their  features  that  he  neglected  to 
assist  the  officers.  He  asked  his  friend  who  those  two  men  were.  He 
was  told  that  they  were  gentlemen  of  eminent  fortune  who  kept  their 
carriage  and  two  footmen.  The  gentleman  then  communicated  his 
suspicion  that  they  were  those  very  Westons,  said  to  have  robbed  the 
Bristol  mail,  as  they  exactly  corresponded  with  the  description  given  in 
the  public  prints." 

So  the  runners  were  set  on  their  tracks,  and  in  the  end  ran  them 
down.  One  of  the  many  counts  of  the  indictment  against  them  was 
that  of  smuggling,  which  in  the  eighteenth  century  was  a  capital  offence. 
It  flourished  vastly  in  Winchelsea,  and  perhaps  attained  to  greater  heights 


86  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

than  those  to  which  the  Rangsleys  carried  it — this  in  spite  of  the  troops 
quartered  in  the  town. 

Winchelsea  stands  above  a  maze  of  cellars  that  were  the  hiding- 
places  for  the  free-traders.  Just  what  the  cellars  were  meant  for  is  some- 
what of  a  mystery.  An  old  writer  opines  that  they  were  built  as 
foundations  for  "  fair  stone  houses  "  ;  but  if  stone  houses  had  ever  been 
built  over  them  they  would  have  left  traces  of  existence.  The  only  old 
stone  house  in  the  place  is  the  buttressed  building  near  the  town  well, 
and  the  cellars  beneath  this  are  nowise  remarkable.  I  imagine  that  the 
cellars  were  merely  built  as  places  of  storage,  perhaps  as  caches  from 
the  French.  A  large  number  of  them  contain  niches  which  may  or  may 
not  have  been  used  as  aumbries  or  money-safes.  The  original  houses  of 
the  town  were  mere  wattle  -  and  -  daub  cottages,  and  their  inhabitants 
probably  needed  the  cellars  for  workrooms  and  shops.  Be  that  as  it 
may,  many  of  the  said  cellars  still  exist,  though  a  number  of  them  have 
been  filled  up  or  put  to  indicible  employments.  There  are,  however, 
several  specimens  of  fine  vaulting  to  be  seen  —  there  is  one  below  the 
choir  of  the  church  —  and  most  of  the  houses  on  the  north  side  of  the 
town  still  stand  over  cellars  which  once  held  good  liquor,  but  do  so, 
alas !  no  more.^ 

Out  on  the  sea-shore  you  will  find  the  remains  of  the  old  harbour, 
the  silting  up  of  which  caused  the  final  decay  of  the  once  great  port. 
There  are  still  the  massive  stone  pier-heads,  streaked  with  the  rust  that 
trickled  down  from  the  boat  -  rings.  You  may  still  trace  in  the  rushy 
amphitheatre  the  entrance  of  what  was  once  the  haven  in  which  the 
whole  navy  of  the  kingdom  used  to  lie. 

Those  who  are  so  minded  may  here  fitly  muse  upon  the  obtuseness 
of  municipalities.      For   the  Winchelsea   burghers   were   so    intent   upon 

'  The  best  specimen  that  is  easily  accessible  is  large  vaults  are,  curiously  enough,  distinctly  Nor- 
that  below  a  little  beer-house  kept  by  a  man  man  in  type  ;  are  probably  decorative  "  throw- 
called  Streeton.     The  grotesque  bosses  in  these      backs." 


WINCHELSEA   AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  87 

the  preservation  of  the  land  which  the  receding  sea  gave  them,  that  they 
forgot  that  the  sea's  recessional  was  the  death-hymn  of  the  town's  great- 
ness. They  grabbed  eagerly  at  the  land,  staked  it  in  and  walled  it 
round,  and  took  no  steps  to  keep  the  harbour  channel  clear  of  sand. 
They  even  suffered  the  people  of  Rye  to  decoy  away  their  river,  which 
now  serves  to  keep  alive  Rye's  moribund  traffic  with  the  great  waters. 

Yet,  may  be,  we  to-day  have  little  to  lament  in  this.  In  place  of 
a  city  of  rest,  where  overstrung  nerves  may  slacken  into  tune,  we  might 
have  had  nothing  more  than  another  seaport.  We  might  have  had 
another  Liverpool,  with  docks  and  steam-cranes  and  a  number  of  things 
excellent  for  the  making  of  money  and  for  the  extension  of  the  empire. 
But  the  empire  is  rich  enough  and  large  enough — yet  where  do  we 
find  rest? 

Out  at  the  old  harbour  mouth  we  are  in  the  mid  of  the  marshes. 
This  Pett  Level  is  a  more  fascinating  tract  than  even  the  Romney 
Marsh.  Its  flat  surfaces  are  more  broken  up  by  reeds  and  rushes 
and  thorn -bushes.  Perhaps  they  count  for  more,  because  Pett  Marsh 
is  a  miniature  affair,  a  little  place,  though  difficult  enough  to  find  one's 
way  about  in.  The  Romney  Marsh  is  a  great  silent  expanse,  a 
thought  forbidding  to  those  whom  long  acquaintance  has  not  led  to 
long  for  it. 

But  the  Pett  Level  is  more  friendly.  You  will  see  it  best  if  you  go 
down  the  sea-hill  from  Winchelsea  and  then  follow  the  canal  to  the  right— 
towards  the  west. 

The  canal  is  always  asleep.  Even  the  fiercest  of  westerly  gales  can 
do  no  more  than  raise  a  quiet  ripple  on  the  waters  and  a  tranquil  rustle 
among  the  tall  reeds  on  the  banks.  It  is  the  place  of  places  for  the  medi- 
tative angler.  He  may  sit  at  his  ease  and  doze  for  hours,  blinking  at  his 
float,  and  occasionally  hauling  out  a  fat  bream.  The  canal  is  full  of  fish. 
Once  the  sea  broke  in,  and  I  would  not  care  to  say  how  many  tons  of 
roach  and  carp  and  bream  they  raked  off  the  top  of  the  waters. 


88  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

You  wind  along  with  the  canal  for  about  three  miles  through  the 
quietest  of  the  marshland. 

It  is  a  lotus-eating  land— a  land  where  one  loses  one's  grip  of  life, 
to  remain  intensely  individual.  Nowhere  is  one  so  absolutely  alone ;  but 
nowhere  do  inanimate  things  — the  water-plants  and  the  lichens  on  the 
stiles— afford  one  so  much  company.  It  must  not  be  hurried  through,  or 
it  is  a  dull,  flat  stretch.  But  linger  and  saunter  through  it,  and  you  are 
caught  by  the  heels  in  a  moment.  You  will  catch  a  malady  of  tranquillity 
—a  kind  of  idle  fever  that  will  fall  on  you  in  distant  places  for  years  after. 
And  one  must  needs  be  the  better,  in  times  of  storm  and  stress,  for  that 
restful  remembrance. 

Either  the  canal  bank  or  the  road  by  the  sea-shore  will  lead  you  to 
Pett.  The  sea  road  is  the  more  bracing  of  the  two  ;  but  it,  too,  is  devious 
and  dilatory,  winding  along  among  shingle  and  sand,  past  solitary  cottages 
that  bear  signs  and  tokens  of  heavy  weather.  The  capricious  sea  is  once 
again  advancing  upon  the  land.  The  coast-guards  have  been  forced  to 
abandon  their  cottages  down  by  the  harbour  mouth,  and  all  trace  of  the 
martello  tower  that  once  stood  beside  them  has  been  washed  away.  In  a 
few  years  it  is  not  impossible  that  the  sea  will  again  be  at  the  foot  of 
Winchelsea  hill  —  it  has  played  cat-and-mouse  with  the  land  so  often 
before.  At  low  water  one  may  see  among  the  ooze  the  trunks  of  what 
centuries  ago  were  the  trees  of  the  forest  of  Andred.  They  stand  there, 
turned  into  clay,  like  soft  fossils,  but  retaining  startlingly  the  forms  of  tree- 
stumps.  And  farther  along,  the  sea,  which  had  receded  far  enough  to 
afford  a  glimpse  of  the  treasures  it  had  submerged,  is  busily  engaged  •  in 
gnawing  away  the  cliffs  at  Cliff  End,  below  Fairlight.  Quite  a  short  while 
ago  a  frail  stairway  used  to  ascend  the  face  of  the  chalk ;  but  Jacob's 
Ladder  has  fallen  away,  and,  along  with  it,  tons  and  tons  of  the  cliff  itself 

The  village  of  Pett  is  so  hidden  away  that  it  has  had  little  to  do  with 
the  making  of  history.  Indeed,  but  for  the  fact  that  here  Mr  Holman 
Hunt  retired  in  the  fifties  to  work  in  solitude,  I  know  of  no  public  associ- 


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WINCHELSEA   AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  Zg 

ations  worthy  of  record.  But  it  is  worth  a  visit,  because  it  is  so  very 
isolated,  and  because  the  walk  from  Winchelsea  is  so  well  worth  taking. 

If  you  have  come  by  way  of  the  marsh,  you  had  better  return  to 
Winchelsea  by  the  inland  road,  which  winds  uphill  and  down  through  a 
wooded  country,  watered  by  a  number  of  little  streams,  and  relieved  by 
welcome  views  of  the  not  too  distant  sea. 

The  Hastings  road,  on  the  other  hand,  is  rather  dull,  and  is  apt  in 
summer  to  be  enlivened  disagreeably  enough  by  what  the  local  folk  style 
charrybangs.  The  interminable  village  of  Icklesham,  however,  contains  an 
interesting  Norman  church,  with  a  fine  Norman  tower,  which  is  somewhat 
Byzantine  in  general  effect.  There  is,  too,  a  "  leper's  hole " — a  round 
aperture  piercing  the  south  wall  and  the  intervening  pillar.  Through  this, 
on  dit,  the  unfortunate  unclean  were  allowed  to  gaze  at  the  high  altar  and 
the  raising  of  the  Host.  The  church  is  particularly  picturesque  when  it  is 
lit  up  on  Sunday  evenings.  A  sufficiently  unromantic  person  once  said  that 
it  seemed  at  such  times  to  be  the  nook  nearest  heaven  upon  the  earth. 

Of  the  other  roads  out  of  Winchelsea,  the  military  one  to  Rye  is  not 
interesting,  and  is,  moreover,  very  trying  to  travellers  upon  a  windy  day. 
But  the  Ferry  or  Station  road  is  picturesque,  and  even  amusing,  on  account 
of  its  remarkable  sinuousness,  and  of  the  pollard  willows  that  border  it. 
Shortly  after  crossing  the  railway,  it  turns  sharply  to  the  left  and  runs  for 
a  time  along  the  rushy  valley  of  the  Brede,  until  it  climbs  the  hill  to 
Udimore,  another  long  village  whose  name  is  its  most  salient  feature.^ 
The  road  here  joins  the  turnpike  from  Rye  and  takes  a  north-westerly 
direction  towards  Brede.  It  runs  for  some  way  along  the  ridge  of  a  range 
of  hills,  and  the  expanse  of  the  valleys  on  either  hand,  with  old  farms 
sheltering  in  the  bottoms,  is  lush  and  fair  to  see.      As  one  approaches 


'  The   name   is   explained    by   legendists    as  fiend,  who  assailed  their  ears  with  cries  of "  O'er 

meaning  "  O'er  the  mere."     The   church,  they  the  mere."     It  is  said  that  the  builders  took  the 

say,  was  originally  commenced   elsewhere,   but  hint, 
the  builders  were  continually  alarmed  by  the  foul 


90  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

Brede  the  roadside  cottages  grow  smaller  and  quainter,  mostly  white,  with 
heavily  thatched  roofs.  Brede  itself,  which  lies  a  little  to  the  left  off  the 
road,  is  another  place  of  utter  isolation.  It  stands  upon  high  ground,  and 
the  view  from  the  church  steeple  is  imposing  in  the  extreme.  This  is, 
indeed,  a  land  of  noble  outlooks. 

Down  in  a  hollow  stands  Brede  Place,  a  very  fine  specimen  of  a  grey 
Tudor  manor-house.  It  has  been  long  more  or  less  abandoned — though 
it  is  at  present  inhabited — and  it  has  nearly  escaped  the  hand  of  the 
restorer.  It  once  belonged  to  the  powerful  Oxenbridge  family,  who 
were  reputed  giants,  and  some  of  them  cannibals.  In  an  upper  room  they 
show  you  the  hook  upon  which  one  giant  Oxenbridge  was  accustomed 
to  hang  the  carcasses  of  his  wives  (he  was  a  species  of  Bluebeard)  prior  to 
converting  them  into  suitable  joints.  When  in  after-years  he  saw  the  error 
of  his  ways,  he  hanged  himself  from  the  self-same  hook.  Perhaps  to 
emphasise  the  warning,  his  blood  reappeared  in  stains  on  the  floor  when 
the  room  was  lately  reboarded.  There  is,  however,  another  version  of 
the  death  of  Giant  Oxenbridge  —  a  version  which,  if  less  credible,  is 
more  romantic.  It  is  said  that  the  children  of  Kent  and  the  children 
of  Sussex,  finding  the  Giant's  cannibalistic  attentions  rather  trouble- 
some, clubbed  together  to  purchase  a  barrel  of  a  newly  invented  bever- 
age called  ale.  This,  on  a  day,  they  presented  to  the  owner  of  Brede 
Place.  The  unfortunate  Giant  liked  its  flavour  so  well  that  he  speedily 
became  intoxicated.  The  children  thereupon  seized  him,  and  carried 
him  to  the  Groaning  Bridge  close  at  hand.  Here  they  laid  him  down 
and  proceeded  to  halve  him  with  a  wooden  saw.  His  groans  may  still 
be  heard  by  the  Bridge. 

Brede  Place  has  altogether  an  uncanny  local  reputation  ;  for  one  thing, 
the  ground  beneath  it  is  riddled  with  underground  passages  running  for 
miles  and  miles ^ — who  knows  where?  Lights,  too,  which  cannot  be 
humanly  accounted  for,  have  been  seen  glowing  in  the  chapel  windows. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  once  the  headquarters  of  a  band  of  smugglers 


WINCHELSEA    AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  91 

who,  not  wishing  to  be  troubled  after  nightfall,  both  spread  reports  to  the 
discredit  of  the  place,  and  took  steps  to  make  bogies  manifest  to  any  bold 
spirit  who  ventured  to  disturb  them  at  their  trade.  But  the  house  is  a 
noble  house,  and  the  park  in  which  it  stands  a  fine  tract  of  rolling  country. 
From  different  parts  of  it  you  will  get  glimpses  of  the  distant  sea  and  of 
the  valleys  which  wind  down  to  it. 

You  may  return  to  Winchelsea  from  Ore  station,  which  is  some  five 
miles  away  ;  but  the  roads  between  are  exceptionally  precipitous  and  badly 
made.  On  the  other  hand,  you  may  be  repaid  by  the  sight  of  a  yoke  of 
red  oxen,  which  are  generally  to  be  seen  drawing  the  plough  in  the  steep 
green  fields  along  the  railway. 


92 


CHAPTER  VI. 


RYE. 


HISTORIC. 


The  mystery  of  the  foundation  of  Rye  is  not  easily  to  be  solved. 
One  historian  of  the  place  remarks  that  since  the  rock  on  which  the 
town  stands  must  have  existed  in  prehistoric  times,  it  probably  had 
inhabitants.  This  theory  seems  unobjectionable,  but  not  vastly  bold. 
Another  has  it  that,  from  Rye  rock,  Time  himself  was  used  to  survey 
the  slow  progress  of  the  adjacent  land.  This  theory,  on  the  other 
hand,  seems  overbold.  The  valiant  supporters  of  the  Roman-origin 
theory  declared  —  I  mentioned  as  much  in  a  note  on  Winchelsea's 
origins  —  that  Rye  and  Winchelsea  formed  parts  of  the  Roman  city 
of  Staninges.  This  seems  to  have  as  little  to  support  it  as  the  "Old 
Time  theory."  On  the  other  hand,  HoUoway  suggests  that  the  rock 
was  first  used  by  fishermen  for  net-drying;  that  afterwards  they  built 
huts ;  and  afterwards  again  the  huts  became  houses  and  the  houses 
a  town. 

When  we  remember  that  the  flourishing  town  of  Yarmouth  was 
founded  in  this  manner  by  the  herring  -  fishers  of  the  Cinque  Ports, 
the  theory  grows  in  acceptability.  What  renders  it  objectionable  from 
the  Rye  man's  point  of  view  is  that  the  theory  assigns  a  lesser  an- 
tiquity to   the   place   than   that  of  the  ports  from  which  the  net-dryers 


R  YE.  93 

came.  I  ofifer  one  and  another  with  due  deference,  leaving  the  matter 
where  I  found  it.  That  the  origins  of  the  place  were  fishy  in  an 
honourable  sense  seems  certain  from  the  fact  that  the  Confessor  granted 
the  town,  along  with  Winchelsea,  to  the  priors  of  Fecamp  —  or  Fish- 
champ,  as  old  writers  have  it.  Religious  in  those  days  loved  fish. 
It  was,  indeed,  the  staple  food  of  the  entire  nation  for  centuries  after 
the  Confessor's  time,  and  the  religious,  by  decreeing  fast-days  on  which 
fish  alone  was  lawful  food,  increased  —  whether  wittingly  or  not  —  the 
value  of  one  of  the  chief  articles  of  their  revenues. 

Thus  Rye,  with  its  fishing  fleet  and  drying-grounds,  was  in  the 
Confessor's  eyes  a  fitting  gift  from  a  king  to  the  servants  of  his  God. 

The  priors  were  not  allowed  to  enjoy  their  rights  in  Edward's 
days.  Godwin,  Earl  of  Kent,  Warden  of  the  Five  Ports,  and  chief 
subject  (one  might  say  master)  of  the  king,  his  son-in-law,  preferred 
to  retain  the  manor  of  Steynings^  "in  the  family,"  as  one  would  say 
to-day.  Harold,  too,  Godwin's  son  and  the  last  Saxon  king,  kept  the 
manor  and  towns  within  it  for  his  own  uses.  The  monks  of  Fecamp 
were  Normans,  and  Harold  did  not  love  the  tribe.  He  is  represented 
to  us,  too,  as  being  essentially  irreligious — as  not  given  to  giving  to 
the  monks,  that  is. 

For  the  Conqueror,  on  the  other  hand,  the  priors  were,  on  the 
whole,  people  to  be  encouraged.  They  were  Normans,  and  they  had 
been  injured  by  the  dead  Harold.  The  Conqueror,  one  must  remember, 
called  himself,  for  a  time,  an  elected  king,  and  professed  to  respect  the 
rights  of  property  of  unoffending  persons.  He  finally  installed  the  priors 
in  their  manor.  They  did  not,  like  the  abbots  of  Bury  St  Edmunds, 
become  the  possessors  of  the  soil  and   its  inhabitants.      The  townsmen 


1  The  locally  and  generally  accepted  theory  is  of  the  manor  of  Steynings,  or  of  Rameslie,  or 

that   Rye   and  Winchelsea  formed  part   of  the  Brede,  the  priors  of  Fdcamp  had  certain  rights 

manor  of  Steynings.    Mr  Round,  however,  throws  over  the  Antient  Towns, 
doubts  upon  it.     But,  in  any  case,  either  as  lords 


94  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

were  free  to  buy  and  sell,  to  reap  and  plough,  without  licence  from 
the  monks.  The  grant  of  the  Confessor  gave  the  priors  only  the  town 
revenues,  or  a  certain  proportion  of  them,  and  the  right  to  elect  bailiffs, 
who  surveyed  the  fisheries  and  trades  of  the  town  and  collected  the 
taxes  upon  them. 

What  were  the  laws  that  ran  in  Rye  and  Winchelsea  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Conqueror's  reign  does  not  appear.  Probably  Cinque 
Port  law  did ;  for  both  the  towns  seem  to  have  been  members  of  the 
organisation  of  the  Five  Ports  at  a  very  early  date.  In  Richard  I.'s 
charter  of  1 290  —  the  earliest  discoverable  —  the  king  speaks  of  the 
privileges  that  "our  father  granted"  and  that  he  confirmed.  In  a 
charter  of  Edward  III.  Rye  is  spoken  of  as  the  more  ancient  of  the 
members  of  the  Ports,  and,  very  much  earlier,  both  Rye  and  Win- 
chelsea became,  under  the  style  and  title  of  Antient  Towns,  entitled  to 
all  the  privileges  of  the  Head  Ports. 

The  growth  of  Rye  was  more  gradual  than  that  of  the  little  town 
over  against  it.  It  is  one  of  the  three  principal  Ports  that  did  not 
move  its  site  for  one  reason  or  another.  It  first  rose  into  being  on 
its  rock,  and  there  it  remains  to  this  day.  In  the  old  days  it  was 
entirely  surrounded  by  water,  fulfilling  the  definition  of  island  that  one 
was  taught  at  school.  On  the  south  and  east  the  front  that  it  offered 
to  a  sufficiently  hostile  world  was  precipitous ;  the  sandstone  rock  rose 
steep  from  the  sea's  edge.  On  the  north  and  west  it  sloped  gently 
towards  the  not  distant  land.  It  must  have  presented  an  appearance 
not  unlike  that  of  St  Michael's  Mount  above  the  narrow,  shallow  water. 
Perhaps  the  Winchelsea  men  and  Edward  I.  had  Rye  in  mind  when 
they  selected  the  site  for  their  new  town.  To  early  medieval  minds 
Rye  must  have  seemed,  even  in  its  first  unwalled  state,  a  hold  im- 
pregnable. Sad  experience  enlightened  them  as  to  the  growing  possi- 
bilities of  modern  warfare.     Little  by  little  the  necessity  of  fortification 


RYE. 


95 


appeared.  William  de  Ypres,  the  commander  of  Stephen's  mercenaries 
and  the  overthrower  of  the  Empress  Maud,  first  built  a  castle  in  the 
place,  which  he  meditated  holding  for  himself.  On  the  death  of  Stephen 
and  the  accession  of  Maud's  son  he  found  it  expedient  to  quit  the 
realm  and  the  outer  world.  He  died  a  monk  eight  years  afterwards. 
After  his  time  the  tower  seems  to  have  become  the  property  of  the 
town.  It  was  used  as  a  place  of  retreat  for  the  townsmen  just  as 
did  the  church  towers  in  the  vicinity.  The  outer  houses  of  the  town 
probably  faced  inwards  and  had  their  backs  loopholed.  On  the  ap- 
proach of  the  ever-threatening  enemy  the  bell  in  Watchbell  Street  was 
tolled  and  the  Rye  men  made  ready  to  defend  themselves.  When  they 
were  driven  out  of  their  houses,  they  retreated  to  the  Ypres  tower 
and  held  it  as  long  as  they  could. 

Incursions  of  French  and  Flemings  must  have  been  daily  feared 
— how  many  actually  took  place  cannot  now  be  discovered  —  and  in 
Richard  I.'s  time  the  licence  to  fortify  the  sea-walls  was  granted.  "  Maior 
et  communitas  villse  de  la  Rye  manuceperunt  villam  prsedictam  muro  de 
petra  et  calce  infra  triennium  a  data  presentium  in  locis  necessariis  suffi- 
cienter  claudere  et  firmare."  The  king  granted  the  revenues  of  the 
town  for  the  defraying  of  the  costs,  and  the  town  was  liable  to  a 
penalty  of  ;^ioo  if  the  walls  had  not  arisen  within  the  three  years. 
In  the  same  charter  we  find  that  the  fortifying  of  the  town  was  con- 
sidered to  be  "the  greatest  safeguard  which  could  be  made  in  these 
parts  for  the  security  of  our  kingdom."  The  wall  on  the  sea  side  does 
not  seem  to  have  proved  very  serviceable. 

In  the  next  reign  Rye  was  taken  and  held  by  the  French  during  the 
whole  time  of  the  Dauphin's  invasion  of  the  kingdom.  Whether  the  priors 
of  Fdcamp  contributed  anything  to  this  end  does  not  appear,  but  it  is 
certain  that  the  next  king  resumed  possession  of  the  town.  The  priors 
are   said   in  the  deed  of  exchange  to  have  been  willing  parties  to  the 


96  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

arrangement.^  They  received  in  exchange  two  manors  in  Gloucestershire 
and  the  hundred  of  Navenby  in  Lincolnshire. 

In  this  charter  again  the  towns  of  Winchelsea  and  Rye  are  styled  "the 
more  noble  members  of  our  Cinque  Ports,"  so  that  here  too  the  upholders 
of  the  Antient  Towns  find  their  account. 

Henry  again  confirmed  the  towns  in  their  privileges,  and  from  this 
time  forward  their  status  seems  uncontestable.  The  completion  of  the 
fortification  of  Rye  was  deferred  until  the  reign  of  Edward  III,  It  did 
not  become  necessary  until  the  shallows  separating  the  town  from  the 
mainland  were  inned.  These  shallows,  formed  by  the  mouths  of  three 
rivers,  were  probably  a  more  efiicient  defence  than  the  walls  that  replaced 
them.  But  the  townsmen  preferred  to  possess  the  land  at  the  expense  of 
the  security  of  the  town.  The  incursions  of  the  French  seem  to  become 
more  frequent  and  more  successful  as  soon  as  the  process  of  inning  was 
complete.  This  happened  about  1366,  when  "Ralph  Spigurnel,  Robert 
Beallknap,  Andrew  de  Guldeford,  and  others  were  ordered  to  view  and 
repair  the  marsh- walls  within  the  liberty  of  the  town  of  Rye." 

Edward  III.  to  some  extent  managed  to  keep  the  wars  in  his  enemy's 
country,  but  almost  immediately  after  his  death  the  French  utterly  ruined 
the  walled  town.  "  They,  within  five  hours,  brought  it  wholly  into  ashes 
with  the  church  that  then  was  there,  of  a  wonderful  beauty,  conveying 
away  four  of  the  richest  of  the  towne,  and  slaying  sixty -six,  left  not 
above  eight  in  the  towne.  Forty- two  hogsheads  of  wine  they  carried 
thence  to  their  ships,  with  the  rest  of  their  booty,  and  left  the  towne 
desolate."  ^ 

1  They  would  seem  only  to  have  parted  with  said,  purchased  by  Edward  I.  for  the  site  of  New 

the  Antient  Towns,  for  they  retained  the  manorial  Winchelsea. 

rights  of  Iham— or  Icklesham — outside  Winchel-  ^  This  is  Stow's  account  as  quoted  by  Hollo- 
sea  until  the  dissolution  of  foreign  monastic  way,  the  historian  of  Rye.  Holloway  suppressed 
orders  in  the  kingdom,  when  the  manor  fell  to  something,  for  —  alas!  for  the  credit  of  the 
the  monks  of  Syon.  Iham  was  included  with  principal  townsmen — Stow  in  the  original  says. 
Rye  and  Winchelsea  in  the  manor  of  Steynings  "  Upon  the  feast  day  of  St  Peter  and  St  Paul  the 
(or  Brede) ;  indeed,  part  of  Iham  was,  as  I  have  Apostles,  in  the  morning  the  Frenchmen,  with 


R  YE.  97 

The  rich  men  and  the  resources  of  the  town  may  be  approximately 
gauged  from  this  account.  The  former  must  have  counted  seventy-eight 
or  so,  the  latter  have  consisted  largely  of  Gascon  wine.  This  was  one  of 
the  most  serious  reverses  of  the  town.  But  worse  followed,  and  even  before 
this  time  they  had  undergone  much.  Thus  in  1337  a  French  fleet  of  thirty- 
five  ships  and  thirty-two  galleys  having  been  driven  off  from  Sandwich, 
invaded  Rye  and  spread  ruin  before  them.  The  Cinque  Ports  squadron, 
however,  this  time  arrived  in  time,  chased  the  French  home  to  Boulogne, 
set  fire  to  part  of  that  town,  and  hanged  twelve  captains  of  the  offending 
fleet.  The  French  must  have  done  more  damage  before  the  ten  years 
were  out,  for  in  1347  fifty-two  houses  and  a  mill  at  Rye  were  reported 
as  burnt  and  uninhabitable,  and  ninety  -  four  in  Winchelsea  as  utterly 
destroyed. 

Upon  the  whole,  life  in  a  Cinque  Port  must  have  been  exciting.  What 
made  it  rather  worse  was  that  the  townsmen  were  considered  by  the  king 
as  little  more  than  stewards  of  their  own  property.  When  disaster  fell 
upon  them  they  were  considered  to  have  been  remiss  in  watchfulness. 
Perhaps  they  were.  Like  chess-players  skilful  in  attack,  they  do  not 
seem  to  have  paid  sufficient  attention  to  their  defence,  and,  too  probably, 
their  ships  returned  from  marauding  expeditions  to  find  that  their  towns 
were  in  ruins.  This  irresponsibility  —  forgetfulness  that  they  were,  in 
a  sort,  national  guardians — brought  them  into  disrepute  with  their  over- 
lords. Thus,  after  the  last- recorded  and  most  terrible  visitation  of  the 
town,   an   example  was  made  of  what  few  of  the  corporation  remained. 

five  vessells,  greate  and  small,  invaded  the  towne  that  by  their  want   of  heart   and   courage,  the 

of  Rye,  and,  with  small  labour  tooke  it :  albeit  towne  was  taken  with   all   their  goods."     The 

the   towne   dwellers,   upon   confidence   of   their  French  were  driven  off  by  the  brave  Abbot  of 

strength,   had   taken    order    that    none    should  Battle  and  the  men  of  Winchelsea,  but  not  before 

remove    their   goods  from   the   towne,   that,   at  they  had  burnt  the  town  and  carried  off  the  wine, 

the   least   wise,   for   love    of  their  goods,   they  They  then  sailed  to  the  Isle  of  Wight,  pillaged 

might   with   more   courage  abide  the  conflicts ;  that,  and   then   returned  to  Winchelsea,  where 

yet,  notwithstanding,  they  turne  their  backs  in  they  were  met  by  the  abbot  in  the  manner  1  have 

the  time  of  battell,  whereupon  it  came  to  passe,  recorded  in  the  chapter  on  Winchelsea's  history. 


98  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

This  was  in  1448,  and  fell  about  almost  immediately  after  Henry  VI. 
had  confirmed  the  town's  charter.  A  king  at  that  time  was  no  longer 
afraid  to  visit  some  of  his  displeasure  on  them.  The  townsmen  ^ — or 
some  of  them — were  accused  of  treachery,  but  the  height  of  their  offence 
does  not  seem  to  have  reached  higher  than  a  want  of  watchfulness. 
Perhaps  the  mayor,  barons,  and  jurats  were  too  snug  in  their  beds  to 
be  aware  of  the  oncoming  of  the  French.  That  they  had  a  sort  of 
reverence  for  a  comfortable  bed  we  know ;  for,  somewhat  earlier,  the 
mayor  and  jurats,  being  upbraided  for  having  spent  as  much  as  one 
penny  on  lodging  in  the  foreign,  replied  that  the  accommodation  paid  for 
was  well  worth  the  money,  for  they  had  slept  upon  that  delicious  new 
marvel — a  feather  bed.  In  any  case,  traitors  and  sleepers  were  hung, 
and  the  poor  town  struggled  into  being  again.  Many  of  the  poorer 
inhabitants  went  into  exile  as  it  was  called  —  left  the  town  for  good 
and  all. 

There  were  so  many  scourges  in  those  days,  so  many  rods  in  pickle. 
Besides  an  angry  king  and  bitter  foes,  the  town  was  wracked  by  ever- 
returning  plagues.  Unlike  Winchelsea,  which  had  plenty  of  space  in 
which  to  breathe.  Rye,  whenever  its  buildings  stood,  was  a  crowded  place. 
Its  streets  were  narrow,  its  buildings  crowded  close  upon  one  another. 
Winchelsea  was  a  model  medieval  town,   Rye  a  typical.^ 

Time  and  again  the  plague  swept  through  the  streets,  and  time 
and  again  fire  followed  it.  After  the  great  plague  of  London  the  fire 
came  as  a  purge.  Rye  never  seems  to  have  felt  the  beneficence  of 
disaster ;  but  it  had  an  incredible  hold  upon  life  and  its  beloved  rock. 
Perhaps   the    privileges    that  were  its    own    drew    foreigners — that   is   to 

'  It  is  not  absolutely  certain  that  it  was  after  in  1360. 
the    1448    invasion    that    the    punishments    for  ^  The  plague  seems  to  have  been  at  its  worst 

treachery  took  place.     Holloway  suggests   that  in  the  sixteenth  century.     In  1544  it  carried  off 

it  was  after  that  of  1377.     Treachery  was  also  385  people  in  six  months.     In  1579,  744  in  five, 

alleged    against    some    of    the    inhabitants    of  It  came  again  in  1590  and  in   1596,  and  these 

Winchelsea  after  the  destruction  of  that   town  were  not  the  only  visitations  during  the  century. 


R  YE.  gg 

say,  dwellers  without  the  Liberties — into  the  place.  If  they  did  not, 
it  is  difficult  to  imagine  how  the  phoenix  of  a  town  can  have  been 
peopled  and  repeopled.  If  outlanders  came,  they  must  have  been  bold 
spirits  to  venture  into  a  place  so  sorely  and  so  constantly  visited.^ 

"  God  save  Englonde  and  the  Towne  of  Rye! "  they  wrote  at  the  end 
of  their  custumal.  They  must  have  had  a  great  faith  in  the  God  that 
was  to  save  them,  a  steadfast  belief  in  themselves  as  a  chosen  people. 
It  is  this  that  strikes  one  most  in  the  story  of  the  town.  There  was 
no  despairing.  Other  peoples  have  been  sorely  tried :  few  have  kept 
such  a  stiff  upper  lip.  They  were  a  sturdy  crew  of  sturdy  villains,  re- 
specting no  people's  rights  but  their  own.  Their  own  they  respected 
immensely.  They  robbed  whoever  they  could  rob  ;  they  were  grievously 
punished  again  and  again  ;  but  they  learnt  no  lesson.  Complaints  against 
the  men  of  Rye  and  Winchelsea  bulk  largely  in  old  naval  records — 
largely,  that  is,  in  proportion  to  the  size  and  importance  of  the  towns. 
At  one  time  it  is  the  Council  of  the  city  of  Cologne  who,  promising  the 
most  ready  obedience  in  all  things  to  the  most  serene  Lord  Henry  of 
England,  complain  that  their  "beloved  fellow-citizen,  Hermann,  coming 
with  his  goods  into  your  jurisdiction,  has  been,  by  your  citizens  of 
Winkilse,  plundered  of  his  goods  to  the  value  of  loo  marks."  At 
another,  it  is  the  sailors  of  Fowey  who  are  attacked  by  and  beat  off  the 
men  of  Rye  and  Winchelsea. 

The  Antient  Townsmen,  in  return,  were  ever  awake  to  uphold  the 
rights  of  their  own  fellow-citizens.  Even  in  comparatively  late  days  we 
find  them  protesting  against  the  action  of  the  market  officers  of  London 
town,  which  latter  had  seized  some  Rye  silk  goods  which  should  have 
gone   market-free. 

'  After  the  invasion  of  1448  the  town  was  so  this  charter,  which,  for  one  reason  or  another, 

impoverished    as    to    be   unable   to  furnish   its  seems  never  to  have  been  acted  upon.    Edward's 

quota  of  ships.     To  aid  it  in  the  task  Tenterden  charter,  which  was  granted  in   1463,  speaks  of 

was  erected  into  a  hmb  or  feeder  of  the  Antient  Henry  VI.  as  "late   King  of  England,  in  fact, 

Town  on  August  i,  1448.    Edward  IV.  confirmed  but  not  of  right." 


loo  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

The  townsmen,  indeed,  must  have  made  themselves  exceedingly 
troublesome  to  all  such  of  gods  and  men  in  this  world  as  were  not  in 
the  number  of  their  immediate  friends.  They  probably  deserved  punish- 
ment. They  certainly  had  it;  but,  on  the  whole,  they  gave  as  good  as 
was  given  them.  Just  who  began  the  quarrels  with  the  French  it  is 
impossible  to  say.  A  punitive  expedition,  as  a  rule,  followed  some  such 
occurrence  as  the  following.  A  Rye  ship  and  a  French  were  watering 
at  the  same  spring  in  Normandy.  The  boats'  crews  came  to  blows  as  to 
who  should  first  fill  a  cask.  A  Frenchman  was  killed,  and  the  Rye  ship 
sailed  off  with  the  honours  of  war.  Then  the  Boulogne  men  in  re- 
venge slaughtered  the  crew  of  an  English  ship  that  lay  in  the  harbour. 
Afterwards  they  strung  the  bodies  from  the  yard-arms  of  their  boats, 
interspersing  the  human  corpses  with  those  of  dogs.  They  dangled 
these  in  the  eyes  of  the  Rye  men.  Those  of  Rye  were  naturally  irri- 
tated, and  organised  a  coast  -  harrying  expedition.  The  French  retali- 
ated, attempting  to  "go  one  better."  In  one  stage  of  the  proceedings, 
as  we  have  seen,  the  French  had  sacked  Rye  and  carried  off  the  bells 
from  the  burnt  church.  The  Winchelsea  men  came  to  the  rescue  of 
the  sister  town  and  sailed  over  to  the  opposite  coast,  where  they  burnt 
a  convent  and  brought  back  another  set  of  bells.  This  may  have 
happened  several  times.^  At  any  rate  the  bells  that  now  clamour  from 
Rye  tower,  ad  maj'orem  Dei  gloriam,  are  of  English  make  and  bear 
jingle-inscriptions  in  good  English.^ 

1  "  In  1378,"  says  Stow,  "the  men  of  Winchel-  fet  from  Rye,  and  especially  the  bells  and  such- 
sea  and  Rye  sailed  for  the  coast  of  Normandy,  like,  which  they  shipped,  set  the  rest  on  fire 
desirous  to  requite  the  losses  which  before  they  and  then  they  land  at  Wilet,  where  they  prac- 
had  received ;  and  so,  in  the  night,  arriving  in  tised  the  like  cheuance,  and  so,  with  their  rich 
a  town  called  Peter's  haven,  entred  the  same,  spoile,  turned  home."  See  anic,  '  Cinque  Ports.' 
slaying  so  many  as  they  met,  and  those  whom  ^  -p^gy  ^^y^  however,  have  been  the  identical 
they  think  able  to  pay  ransome  they  carry  to  bells,  for,  in  the  accounts  of  the  church,  frequent 
their  ships  ;  they  spoyled  the  houses,  with  the  items  refer  to  the  cost  of  having  the  bells  recast 
churches,  where  they  found  many  rich  spoyles,  in  London.  These  recastings  mostly  occurred 
which  sometime  had  been,  by  the  Frenchmen,  in  the  sixteenth  century. 


R  YE.  loi 

One  learns  at  school  to  admire  this  sort  of  thing,  and,  in  spite  of 
later  learnt  altruism,  one  goes  on  admiring  it.  It  was  the  making  of 
the  nation  in  its  schoolboy  days.  It  taught  the  people  how  to  give  and 
how  to  take  hard  knocks ;  it  had  its  place  in  the  scheme  of  creation. 
This,  then,  was  the  mode  of  life  in  Rye  town  until  the  harder  fighting 
days  were  over.  The  place  seems  to  have  contained  very  much  the 
same  kinds  of  crafts  and  trades  as  did  Winchelsea,  though  not  in  quite 
such  numbers.  The  wine  -  trade  was  carried  on  in  both  alike ;  both 
places  at  different  times  had  licence  to  export  wool.  Ships  also  were 
built  in  the  harbour  :  they  are  so  still.  It  possessed  a  mint,  which  until 
the  seventeenth  century  struck  coins  and  tokens. 

Rye  never  contributed  as  many  ships  to  the  king's  navy  as  Win- 
chelsea and  others  of  the  Ports.  As  a  rule,  its  contribution  numbered 
twenty  -  one  ships  manned  by  105  men.  Holloway  calculates  that  this 
must  have  cost  the  town  the  equivalent  of  ;^8i9,  7s.  6d.  It  also  owned 
a  fleet  of  merchantmen,  which  were  generally  employed  in  the  wine- 
trade.  The  number  and  the  nature  of  these  ships  are  equally  obscure. 
The  most  feasible  conjecture  is  that  these  ships  were  identical  with 
those  contributed  to  the  Royal  Navy.  It  seems  extremely  unlikely  that 
the  Ports  men  would  have  left  their  ships  unemployed  during  the  three 
hundred  odd  days  of  the  year  that  the  king's  right  did  not  cover.  The 
end  of  this  fleet  is  also  unexplained.  Probably  they  were  lost  at  sea. 
At  any  rate,  as  Jeake  says,  "  Rye  never  recovered  its  ancient  shipping 
since  the  loss  of  the  Bourdeaux  fleet,  as  reported,  in  the  time  of  King 
Henry  VI  I."  1 

The  town  sank  very  low  after  its  loss.  It  does  not  even  seem  to 
have  been  fully  populated  again  until  the  massacre  of  St  Bartholomew 
and    the    Low    Country    slaughters    under    Alva.       Then    Fleming    and 

>  Arthur  Young  mentions  a  return  of  the  time  bered,  stood  on  the  verge  of  what  was  even  then 
of  Edward  VI.,  which  states  that  of  thirty-seven  a  vast  forest— which  left  Rye  harbour  at  one  tide, 
vessels  laden  with  wood — Rye,  it  must  be  remem-      not  one  was  an  English  bottom. 


to2  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

French  Protestants  took  the  places  of  those  who  had  died  of  the  plague 
and  conflagrations.  From  that  time  onwards  it  took  a  new  lease  of  a 
less  stirring  life.  Hitherto  the  town  had  been  more  or  less  frequently 
in  touch  with  what  we  call  nowadays  national  events.  Thus,  when 
before  Agincourt  Henry  V.  captured  Harfleur,  the  Rye  ships  took  a 
principal  part  in  the  engagement.  Holloway  mentions  that  the  king, 
being  short  of  money,  left  certain  jewels  in  pawn  with  the  mayor,  bailiff, 
and  commonalty  until  such  time  as  he  was  able  to  pay  the  wages  of  the 
men  employed.  Ten  years  afterwards  the  fleet  assembled  in  Winchel- 
sea  harbour;  and  even  under  Elizabeth  the  Rye  ships  or  men  must 
have  done  service  against  the  Invincible  Armada,  for  in  1589  "the  town 
of  Rye  was  by  her  presented  with  six  brass  guns  beautifully  ornamented 
with  the  arms  of  Spain,  which  stood  on  the  spot  called  the  Green  until 
the  late  war,  when  they  were  unfortunately — and  to  the  great  discredit 
of  the  parties,  whoever  they  were,  whose  bad  taste  led  them  to  do  it — 
bartered  with  the  Government  for  two  iron  six-pounder  guns." 

This  service  against  the  Armada  is  almost  the  last  naval  service  that 
the  town  performed.  The  harbour  was  no  longer  deep  enough  to  hold  the 
large  ships  of  war  of  that  day,  though  a  little  time  before  the  town  was 
tantalised  with  hope.  In  1577  the  sea  suddenly  burst  the  sea-walls  on  the 
west  and  north-west  of  the  town  and  formed  a  new  harbour.  The  towns- 
men at  once  began  to  project  schemes  of  fresh  naval  greatness.  "In  hope 
of  the  continuance  of  the  same  new-opened  haven  certain  men  of  the 
town,"  says  Holinshed,^  "have  begun  to  build  fair  barks  to  travel  the  seas, 
which  in  the  continuance  of  time  will  be  a  great  furtherance  to  the  main- 
tenance of  the  queen's  navy."  Perhaps  it  was  this  fact  that  enabled  Rye 
to  help  in  1588.  Whether  or  no,  the  new  harbour — it  was  called  "The 
Wish  " — was  afterwards  filled  in  again  and  the  sea  walled  out. 

'  He  incidentally  suggests  that  the  inroads  of      had  suddenly  refused  to  allow  the  fishermen  to 
the   sea   were   by  way  of  being  a  providential      dry  their  nets  upon  his  ground, 
retribution  incurred  by  a  surly  marsh-owner  who 


R  YE.  103 

When  Henry  VIII.  built  Camber  Castle  it  stood  upon  a  sand-spit 
similar  in  form  to  the  famous  Chesil  Beach.  This  spit  ran  from  the 
eastern  side  of  Winchelsea  to  within  a  short  distance  of  the  marsh  walls 
to  the  east  of  Rye.  The  water  within  was  shallow  towards  Winchelsea 
and  only  slightly  deeper  in  the  channel  of  the  Rother.  Very  soon  after- 
wards— ^within  fifty  years — the  castle  which  had  been  built  upon  the  sea- 
shore stood  several  hundred  yards  from  the  high-water  mark,  and  the 
Winchelsea  shallows  were  nearly  filled  up  by  alluvial  soil  brought  down 
by  the  Brede,  the  Rother,  and  the  Tillingham  brook.  Rye  harbour  has 
never  entirely  disappeared.  It  still  affords  shelter  for  a  few  fishing-boats, 
and  is  occasionally  visited  by  small  sailing  vessels.  But  for  a  century  or 
so  after  Elizabeth's  time  it  was  probably  even  less  deep  than  it  is  to-day. 
Thus  it  became  utterly  unfit  to  float  men-of-war,  which  were  already 
beginning  to  be  of  large  burthen — one  should  remember  that  Cabot's  Great 
Harry  was  built  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth's  father.  The  appearance  of 
this  vessel  among  the  ships  of  the  navy  meant  the  end  of  the  day  for  the 
Channel  cock-boats  of  the  Five  Ports. 

Rye,  however,  happy  in  the  possession  of  its  harbour,  such  as  it  was, 
continued  to  flourish.  It  enjoyed  comparative  tranquillity.  International 
law  grew  strong  enough  to  put  a  stop  to  Channel  bickerings  in  peace-time, 
and  wars  with  France  less  frequent.  Once,  however,  in  the  Stuart  cen- 
tury there  was  a  French  alarm.  Jeake — the  most  diligent  of  Cinque 
Port  historians — tells  us  in  his  diary  that  on  July  4,^   1690,  the  French 

'  This,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  just  after  Beachy  Head,  which  being  not  far  off,  put  the 

the  battle  of  the  Boyne.     The  French  ships  had  town  in  some  apprehensions  of  danger."     This 

actually  carried  the  miserable  James  II.  past  the  diary  affords  a  picture  of  the  state  of  mind  of 

shores  of  the  land  he  had  lost  towards  his  final  Rye  at  this  juncture  which  is  worth  a  moment's 

defeat.     This  was  one  of  the  periods  in  English  perusal.     As  thus  r — 

history  at  which  the  French  navy  was  immeasur-  "Jy^th.  At    sunset,    news    arrived    that   the 

ably  superior  to  that  of  England.     Le  Roi  Soleil  French  were  shooting  to  beat   down  Hastings, 

had  practically  gained  command  of  the  Channel ;  and  they  did  indeed  shoot  some  bullets  into  the 

and  just  before  this  time,  as  Jeake  mentions  in  town  and  killed  a  man  or  two,  but  without  much 

his  diary  for  July  i,  "  news  came  to  town  that  the  other  damage. 

Enghsh   fleet   was    beaten    by   the    French   off  "Jy  ith.  On  this  day  I  sent  for  my  mother 


t04  THE  CINQUE  PORTS. 

fleet  came  into  Rye  Bay  in  search  of  the  English,  who  had  left  it  that 
same  morning.  "  At  noon  of  the  next  day  the  French  fleet  were  most  of 
them  in  the  bay,  full  in  sight  of  the  town,  and  on  the  morning  of  the 
6th  a  terrible  alarm  reigned  in  the  town  of  the  French  coming  to  land, 
they  having  sent  three  small  shallops  to  sound  the  depth  at  the  coming 
into  the  harbour,  which  they  supposed  to  be  either  to  come  in  that  tide, 
it  being  then  near  full  sea,  or  to  prepare  against  next,  and  that  their 
intentions  were  to  burn  the  fire-ships  that  were  then  put  into  the  harbour, 
and  to  fire  and  plunder  the  town.  There  was  an  intolerable  hurry  all 
day,"  he  goes  on,  "  the  trained  bands  up  in  arms  with  the  soldiers 
and  sailors  of  the  Anne  who  were  then  in  the  town,  sending  out  into 
the  country  for  more  men  and  planting  guns  on  the  beach  with  a  breast- 
work of  deal  boards  to  make  a  show  at  the  mouth  of  the  harbour." 
Probably  the  French  were  frightened  by  the  deal  boards — walls  of  oak 
would  have  been  better  —  in  any  case,  they  sailed  away  and  left  the 
town  unharmed. 

A  Dutch  fleet,  too,  before  this  time  had  made  its  appearance  in  Rye 
Bay.  De  Witt  in  1652  spent  a  day  in  plundering  the  fishing-boats  whilst 
Blake  was  away  in  Scotland.  Shortly  afterwards,  however,  the  Lord 
Warden — for  Blake  filled  that  post — arrived  in  the  bay.  The  Dutch  had 
left  by  that  time,  but  within  the  fortnight  the  two  fleets  met,  and  Blake 
succeeded,  after  two  days'  fighting  in  the  neighbourhood,  in  driving  the 
Dutch  home  again.     The   English  had  gained  a  "  stupendous   victory " ; 

and  wife  and  children  back  to  Rye,  being  per-  because  my  little  boy  was  this   morning  taken 

suaded  thereto  by  some  seamen."  sick  of  a  fever,  and  very  bad,  so  that  he  could 

yy  6th.  The  passage  quoted  m  the  text.     He  not  be  carried  without  danger  of  his  life,  and 

continues :    "  Nothing  seen  but  fears   and   con-  therefore   we   had    two    poor  women   provided, 

sternations,   sending   of  goods   out   of  town   in  ready  to  have  carried  him  in  a   flasket  if  the 

waggons  and  on  horses.     I  sent  my  mother-in-  French   had   landed.    .    .   .    But  through   mercy 

law  and  daughter  out  of  town  again  about  two  in  there  was  no  attempt  made  by  them  to  do  any 

the  afternoon,  and,  with  them,  my  writings  and  mischief  to  the  town."     The  good  Jeake  immedi- 

gold,  the  rest  of  my  money  in  the  evening,  and  ately  casts  a  horoscope  and  discovers  that  the 

my  wife's  clothes,  but  she  went  not  out  of  town,  heavens  had  been  all  along  propitious. 


R  YE.  105 

the  Dutch  seem  to  have  thought  theirs  a  "  moral "  one,  for  in  nine  months' 
time  they  were  out  again,  this  time  with  the  broom  at  the  mast-head. 

Since  those  days  Rye  has  seen  no  more  of  war.  It  was,  nevertheless, 
tenacious  of  the  privileges  that  warlike  deeds  had  given  it.  When  during 
the  Napoleonic  wars  the  pressgang  appeared  in  its  streets  it  pleaded 
exemption,  and  was  allowed  to  provide  its  quota  of  men  for  the  navy. 
That,  at  least,  is  the  Rye  version  of  the  matter.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
pressgang  was  bought  off  by  the  payment  of  a  sum  sufficient  to  provide  a 
due  number  of  substitutes.^  In  any  case,  a  large  number  of  Rye  men 
fought  and  fell  at  Camperdown.  During  the  same  wars,  too,  the  town 
raised  a  corps  of  artillery  which  managed  the  two  six  -  pounders  afore- 
mentioned. 

Rye,  in  fact,  became  a  mere  trading  city  after  the  days  of  the  Armada. 
It  received  the  merchants  of  Winchelsea  who  abandoned  their  homes 
towards  1498,^  and  from  that  time  onwards  Rye,  which  had  been  creeping 
up  towards  the  pre-eminence  of  its  sister  town,  assumed  an  absolute  lead. 
It  had  merchants,  fishermen,  sailors,  and  a  body  of  foreign  Protestants, 
which  last  in  1562  numbered  as  many  as  1532.  Its  history  became  that  of 
any  other  more  or  less  flourishing  town.  Kings  and  queens  visited  it  from 
time  to  time.  Elizabeth  herself  came  in  one  of  her  progresses.  She  is 
said  to  have  rested  outside  the  town  beside  a  well  that  ever  since  has  been 
called  Queen  Elizabeth's.  You  may  remember  that  Winchelsea  sets  up 
similar  pretensions.  The  Georges,  too,  came  now  and  again,  driven  in  by 
stress  of  weather  or  what  not  on  the  sea.  The  First  Gentleman  is  said  to 
have  loved  a  fair  unknown  who  lived  near  the  church  ;  but,  if  he  came, 
he  came  as  a  man  and  a  lover,  rowed  ashore  from  his  ship,  and  the 
official  records  contain   no  mention   of  the  visits   of  the  gentleman  and 

*  I  do  not  feel  quite  certain  that  the  Rye  plea  service  of  the  king's  ships, 

was  vahd.     Sir  Harris  Nicolas  quotes  a  number  *  Cooper  quotes  a  return  made  in  that  year, 

of  writs  to  the  Bailiffs  of  the  Five  Ports  during  showing    that   Winchelsea    then    possessed    no 

the  reigns  of  the  three  Edwards — writs  which  person  who  had  above  ;£4o  in  goods, 
command  the  said  bailiffs  to  impress  men  for  the 


io6  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

king.  The  town,  like  Winchelsea,  retained  its  two  members  until  the 
days  of  reform,  and  personally  I  see  no  reason  why  it  should  have  been 
deprived  of  them  then.  It  seems  to  me  that  members  returned  by  towns 
so   beautiful   ought   to   be   better    than    members   for   towns   as   hideous 

as .      But  there  are  too  many  cities  contending  for  this  last  distinction. 

One  is  no  Paris  to  award  this  particular  apple. 

The  system  of  representation  of  earlier  days  caused  gaiety  and  bustle 
in  its  time.  At  one  time  Rye  boasted  but  nine  electors  to  the  two  elected ; 
in  1 83 1  it  had  but  twelve  voters  at  the  poll.  But  the  populace  was  by 
that  time  clamorous  for  votes.  Its  leaders  attempted  a  coup  d'^iat. 
"  Only  nine  months  had  elapsed  since  the  war  of  the  barricades  in'  Paris." 
Holloway  writes  this.  He  was  an  eyewitness  of  a  scene  that  would  have 
done  credit  to  la  ville  lumiere.  "  The  sight  of  the  coastguards  was  the 
signal  for  the  wildest  uproar  and  confusion.  The  populace,  infuriated, 
prepared  to  arm  themselves ;  and  it  was  but  the  work  of  a  moment  to  tear 
down  the  iron  fence  which  enclosed  the  market-house,  each  palisade  of 
which  became  a  pike  in  the  hands  of  the  man  who  held  it.  .  .  .  The 
people  began  to  pull  up  the  pavement  at  the  end  of  Market  Street,  where 
it  joins  to  East  Street,  and  to  prepare  for  barricading  it,  when  the  mayor 
and  his  party  made  their  appearance.  .  .  .  The  night  brought  no  rest,  but 
confusion  (if  possible)  was  worse  confounded.  The  passions  of  the  people 
knew  no  control  ;  the  magistrates  had  no  power." 

The  trouble  was  that  the  electors  had  all  been  elected  freemen  by 
the  mayor  and  jurats,  who  were  themselves  all  relatives.  The  whole 
corporation  consisted  of  Lambs  and  their  nominees.  For  forty  -  nine 
years  in  succession  the  mayoralty  was  held  by  a  Lamb.  Upon  the 
whole,  therefore,  the  time  was  ripe  for  a  change,  and  the  change  soon 
came.  Shortly  afterwards  every  ratepayer  became  a  freeman,  and 
such  stirring  times  passed  away  and  were  reckoned.  Under  the  old 
system  Rye  contrived  to  return  one  member  of  world-wide  fame — the 
great    Duke   of  Wellington,  who  sat  as  Sir   Arthur   Wellesley   in    1802. 


R  YE.  107 

Since  its  reformation  it  has  never  contrived  to  do  as  much.  After  the 
passing  of  the  great  Reform  Bill  the  town  returned  but  one  member 
at  a  time,  now  it  returns  none  at  all.  It  has  been  merged  into  a 
division  of  Sussex. 

The  Rye  populace  enraged  must  have  been  rather  trying  to  deal 
w^ith.  Many  of  its  constituents — perhaps  the  majority — were  smugglers 
of  a  most  determined  type.  Their  antipathy  to  the  coastguards  seems 
thus  more  comprehensible.  The  story  of  the  exploits  of  both  parties 
is  of  immense  length,  the  smuggling  organisation  seeming  to  have  been 
the  more  perfect  of  the  two. 

"In  May  1826  a  smuggling  galley,  chased  by  a  guard-boat,  ran 
ashore  near  the  mouth  of  Rye  Harbour  and  opened  fire  on  the  guard. 
The  blockade -men  from  Camber  watch-house  came  to  the  spot  and 
seized  one  of  the  smugglers,  when  a  body  of  not  less  than  two  hundred 
armed  smugglers  rushed  from  behind  the  sandhills  and  commenced  a 
fire  on  the  blockade,  killing  one  and  wounding  another,  but  were  ulti- 
mately driven  off  with  the  capture  of  their  galley,  carrying  oiT,  never- 
theless, their  wounded."  This  sort  of  thing  was  of  constant  occurrence 
and  went  on  for  many  years.  "  The  last  occasion  on  which  a  life  was 
sacrificed  was  on  April  i,  1838,  when  Thomas  Monk,  a  poor  fiddler 
of  Winchelsea,  was  shot  by  the  coastguards  in  an  affray  at  Camber 
Castle."! 

Of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Antient 
Towns  to-day  this  is  perhaps  not  the  place  to  speak.  Of  the  manners 
and  habits  of  the  Rye  men  in  earlier  days  much  may  be  discovered. 
The  Rye  municipal  records  for  centuries  have  been  preserved  in  a 
manner  that  reflects  the  utmost  credit  upon  whoever  preserved  them. 
They  offer   immense    inducements    of  reward  to  the    student    of  human 

1  Sussex    Archaeological   Collections,    vol.   x.  and  it  was  the  custom  of  the  farmers  in  that 

The   author  adds  :    "  I   have   been   present,  in  neighbourhood  to  favour  the  smugglers  so  far 

a  house  at  Rye,  when  silks  for  sale  were  mys-  as  to   allow   the   gates   in   the   field  to   be  left 

teriously  produced  from    their    hiding  -  places  ;  unlocked  at  night." 


108  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

documents   and   of  municipal    vicissitudes.      One   learns   from   them   the 

price    of  lime,    of  lead,    of  butcher-meat — of  everything,  at   almost   any 

season    of  any   year.     One    may  see    how   much    wine    the   clerks    drank 

at  Whitsuntide    15 13,  and  what  was  paid   for   it.     One    may  spend  lazy 

days   in   poring  over  the  account-books,  on  wondering  why  there  should 

so    often    have    been    needed    "  four    mats    to    kneel    on,     for    the    two 

seats   that   Mr   Mayor  and  his  brethren  do  sit   in";    one   may  wish  that 

a   pair  of  boots   and  four  pairs  of  shoes    could  nowadays  be  bought  for 

5s.  ;    one  may  feel  with    the    luckless    person,   whoever   he  was,   who    in 

1574    poured    out    his   woes    on    the   sympathising    page    of    the    mayor's 

book  as  thus  : — 

"  As  with  pain  he  serves  in  pain 

That  nought  doth  get  thereby, 

So  thanks  are  small  to  him  that  doth 

Serve  a  commonalty." 

The  mayors  and  jurats  never  seem  to  have  been  over-popular  in 
the  town.  William  Appleby,  the  obscure  writer  of  the  verses,  must 
have  been  either  an  employee  of  the  corporation,  in  which  case  he 
was  ill-treated  by  them,  or  he  must  have  been  an  unsuccessful  mayor 
who  experienced  some  popular  mishandling.  The  body  corporate  seems 
to  have  taken  full  advantage  of  the  facts  that  it  had  neither  body  to 
kick  nor  more  noble  part  to  be  permanently  inconvenienced.  It  had 
the  ordinary  bad  luck  of  its  class,  it  sometimes  acted  ungraciously,  and 
occasionally  in  a  more  cowardly  way  than  the  rest  of  its  Five  Port 
fellows.  It  seems  to  have  taken  to  heart  the  maxims  of  the  Vicar 
of  Bray,  too.  It  was  the  only  one  of  the  Ports  or  members  that  paid 
the  fine  imposed  on  the  Ports  by  Charles  I.,  and  on  the  back  of  a 
subsequent  deed   of  gift  ^   is   preserved   its   declaration   of  fidelity  to  the 

'  This  document  was  lately  discovered  by  Mr  that  date  were  "no  scoUards."     They  made  their 

Inderwick.      It  would   probably  have  been  de-  marks — cart-wheels  and  forked  arrows.    Perhaps 

stroyed  as  damnatory  at  the  Restoration,  but  for  it  was  on  this  account  that  one  of  the  regulations 

the  fact  of  the  deed  on  the  reverse  side.    It  reveals  of  Rye  grammar-school  was  that  no  freeman  of 

the  fact  that  the  large  majority  of  the  burgesses  at  the  town  was  eligible  for  the  post  of  master. 


R  YE.  109 

Cromwelliaii  Commonwealth.  But  these  are  small  blemishes  on  an 
otherwise  great  record.  As  a  rule,  it  stood  up  for  itself  and  its  citizens 
and  did  its  best.      No  Corporation  can  do  more. 

Of  the    manners  and   habits   of   its   unofficial    inhabitants    something 
may  be  learnt  from  ballads.     Thus  we  hear  that   Captain    Pim   of  Win- 
chelsea  had  a  way  of  his  own   with   the  ladies — a  way  that   the    ladies 
do  not  seem  to  have  resented.     And   if  we  let  Captain   Pim   stand    for 
the  males  of  the  Antient  Towns,  the  true  "  Mayde  of  the   South"  may 
stand  for  the  women.     The  ballad  tells  us  that  she  was  "  a  rare  example 
of  a  Mayde   dwelling  at    Rie   in    Sussex,  who    for  the  love  of  a  young 
man   of   Lestershire,    went    beyond    sea    in    the    habit    of    a   page,    and, 
after,   to   their   hearts'   content,    were   both    married  at    Magrum    in   Ger- 
many,  and   now  dwelling  at   Rie  aforesaid."       Perhaps  men  and  women 
like    Captain    Pim    and    sweet    Margery,    the    "  mayde    of    Rie,"    made 
the    Five    Ports    such    as    they  were.     Nowadays    the   audacious    captain 
would  be  fined   five  shillings  or  more  for  chucking  young  ladies   under 
the  chin,  and   poor  Margery  would  be  punished  for  breach  of  decorum. 
But  the  spirit  which  actuated  them  had  its  uses,  and  as  for  the  spirit 
of  the    little    Antient    Towns — when   at  last  it  dies  away — why,    "  God 
save  Englonde  and  the  Towne  of  Rye  !  " 


no 


CHAPTER   VII. 

RYE   AND   ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD. 

DESCRIPTIVE. 

Rye  has  one  quality  that  no  other  town  that  I  have  seen  possesses. 
It  is  always  "fit  to  be  seen."  Any  other  town  has  its  moments.  Even 
London,  seen  from  a  great  distance,  from  a  great  height,  half  hidden 
by  wreaths  of  smoke,  manages  to  seem  spectacular,  imposing.  But 
Rye  is  so  always.  It  never  seems  to  nod — or,  if  it  does,  its  slumbrous 
times  are  charming;  it  never  has  its  hair  en  papillotes.  It  reminds 
one  of  that  certain  vastly  popular  novelist  of  whom  some  one  once 
said  that  he  seemed  to  have  an  appropriate  attitude  for  every  moment 
of  the  year,  to  be  ready  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night  for  the 
Kodak -wielder.  But,  unlike  that  distinguished  gentleman,  Rye  never 
poses.  It  is  for  ever  sincere.  It  is  medievally  picturesque,  because, 
like  Topsy,  it  growed  so. 

I  get  up  from  my  writing  these  words  and  look  out  across  the 
eighteen  miles  of  air  that  separates  me  from  it.  I  see  it,  far  down 
below  my  window,  across  the  yellow  oak -leaves  of  the  hillside,  across 
the  impossibly  flat  green  marsh.  The  marsh  has  that  quality  seen 
from  a  height — the  quality  of  seeming  almost  ludicrously  flat,  like  a 
billiard  -  table  beneath  a  painful  glare  of  light.  It  looks  like  the 
level    greenness    that   a    missal  -  painter    used    as    a    hieroglyph    for    the 


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NEW    ROMNEY   AND   MARSH; 


RYE   AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  iii 

gay  greensward  beneath  the  horses'  hoofs  of  impossible  knights  and 
men-at-arms.  Beyond — oh,  a  long  way  beyond — the  little  town  rises 
like  a  pyramid  ;  red  roofs  touching  red  roofs — it  is  a  very  clear  day, 
you  must  remember  —  and  at  the  very  topmost  point  the  sparkle  of 
the  weather-cock  as  the  light  of  the  morning  strikes  it.  Rye  is  quite 
ready  to  be  looked  at.  It  at  once  takes  up  its  role  of  a  medieval 
toy,  the  role  that  it  plays  whenever  a  spectator  looks  at  it  from  a 
distance.  It  seems  to  have  been  painted  into  an  initial  at  the  time 
when  the  thorns  of  this  brier- patch  of  a  world  were  larger — infinitely, 
infinitely  larger — but  not  half  so  frequent  or  so  teasing  as  they  are 
to-day.  The  people  who  limned  it  may  have  lived  in  fear  of  plague, 
famine,  and  sudden  death,  but  their  minds  cannot  have  been  tormented 
by  the  thousand  natural  wrongs  that  to-day  our  flesh  is  heir  to.  Other- 
wise they  could  never  have  so  simply  and  so  naturally  set  that  ancient 
town  upon  its  little  hill. 

Rye  is  not  Rimini  or  Nuremberg.  Any  one  of  the  countries  of 
Europe  can  show  more  perfect  achievements  in  the  way  of  medieval 
towns.  Rye  is  a  spoken  word  of  a  homely  dialect,  of  a  language 
that  has  produced  few  masterpieces.  But  the  language,  such  as  it  is, 
is  usable,  adaptable  to  many  circumstances.  Probably,  on  the  last  day, 
all  nations,  all  peoples  will  be  adjudged  equal  on  the  whole.  Then 
the  qualities  of  a  race  and  an  age  that  built  towns  like  Rye  will  not 
fail  to  receive  due  commendation. 

Rye  has  a  number  of  mists  to  come  to  the  aid  of  its  picturesqueness. 
I  remember  one  day  seeing  the  town  on  a  hot  summer's  morning  when 
the  mists  swirled  all  round  the  base  of  the  hill.  The  roofs  of  the 
higher  houses  and  the  whole  of  the  church  stood  up  over  a  purple 
cloud.  The  sort  of  thing  has  been  described  time  and  again  by  writers 
who  concern  themselves  with  mountainous  foreign  districts ;  indeed,  I 
have  often  enough  myself  seen  similar  sights,  but  never  anything  so 
clear,   so  red  and   blue    and    purple   and    golden,   so    sparkling   and    toy- 


112  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

like.  Polish  history  tells  us  that  after  an  apparition  of  the  sort  the 
Poles  defending  a  monastery  took  new  heart  and  fell  upon  their  Swedish 
masters.  Their  church,  they  thought,  was  floating  on  the  mists  to 
their  aid.  Perhaps  the  Rye  men  were  once  cheered  by  such  a  sight 
im  alien  schonen  Zeit.  At  any  rate,  we  moderns  who  may  now  and 
then  see  such  a  vision  should  be  by  it  cheered  and  chastened  against 
evil  times  to  come. 

But  Rye  is  not  always  medieval — in  fact  it  is  only  so  when  seen 
from  a  distance.  I  remember  the  first  impression  that  it  made  upon 
me  was  that  of  a  Georgian  city  of  the  dead.  I  reached  the  town  very 
late  one  night  quite  a  number  of  years  ago.  I  had  walked  from  Ashford, 
intending  to  have  caught  the  train  at  Appledore,  which  lies  some  half-way 
between.  But  between  Ham  Street  and  Appledore  I  had  lost  my  way. 
To  lose  one's  way  on  that  stretch  of  marsh  is  an  exhilarating  but 
extremely  irritating  experience.  The  night  fell,  and,  in  brief,  it  was 
very  late  when  I  reached  the  town.  There  was  not  a  soul  in  the 
streets,  and  my  footsteps  echoed  in  a  portentous  silence.  It  was  impos- 
sible to  awaken  any  one  in  the  inn  in  the  High  Street.  I  wandered  about 
for  some  time  in  a  comparatively  light  night.  What  most  impressed 
me  in  the  town  was  the  fixed,  unwinking  stare  of  the  house  windows. 
They  bulged  out  and  in  and  caught  what  little  light  there  was  in  a 
way  that  only  the  windows  of  Georgian  houses  possess.  The  streets 
seemed  very  narrow,  very  uneven,  very  dark,  very  echoing.  I  at  last 
found  a  bed  in  the  house  of  a  friendly  smacksman,  but  even  now  I 
cannot  forget  the  feeling  of  alarm,  almost  of  panic,  that  then  came 
over  me.  The  place  was  so  deadly  quiet,  so  intensely  asleep,  as  if 
it  had  been  overcome  by  drowsiness  in  the  reign  of  George  H.,  and 
never  would  awake  until  the  advent  of  some  Prince  Charming  that 
certainly  was  not  myself 

But   Rye  is   not  for  ever  asleep.     At  times  it  has  a  pleasant  local 
bustle   in  its  streets.      It  has  a  cattle-market  day  that  draws  inwards  all 


RYE  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  113 

manner  of  old  rustic  types  that  one  never  thought  to  see  again.  Farmers 
come  out  of  hidden  valleys  and  hidden  villages — the  valleys  and  villages 
that  hide  the  Van  Winkles  of  the  day.  There  are  so  many  of  them,  and 
their  talk — if  one  can  get  them  to  talk,  or  if  one  can  sit  unobtrusively  in 
a  bar  parlour  and  listen  when  two  or  three  are  gathered  together — is  so 
pleasantly  compounded  of  Van  Winkle  words  and  accents.  Their  costume 
is  the  costume  of  to-day,  modified  to  suit  the  weather  and  the  world  they 
live  in.  Their  thoughts  are  the  thoughts  of  ages  past.  The  easels  and 
cameras  that  block  the  narrow  streets  do  not  exist  for  them,  are,  most 
likely,  invisible  to  them.  They  accept  them  with  the  exclusive  calm  of 
the  chimney-tops  and  roofs  that  the  sketchers  sketch  and  the  photographers 
photograph.^ 

They  are  the  permanent  things  when  all  is  said  and  done,  when  all 
the  tides  of  visitors  have  come  and  gone.  The  visitors  themselves  are  one 
of  the  charms  of  the  place.  The  large  majority  of  them  have  aesthetic  or 
literary  tendencies,  and,  in  consequence  perhaps,  gown  themselves  a  little 
out  of  the  ordinary.  They  give  touches  of  colour  and  wander  about  in 
attitudes  out  of  the  ordinary.  All  this  adds  to  the  charm,  to  the 
atmosphere  of  pleasant  unreality,  of  not  taking  things  seriously. 

There  is  nothing  very  old  about  the  place — or  very  little.  A  gate- 
way, an  old  tower,  a  church,  two  or  three  Elizabethan  houses,  leaven  the 
lump.  But  the  real  charm  of  the  town  is  the  lines  of  its  streets.  These 
not  even  the  zeal  of  the  shopkeepers  who  delight  in  plate-glass  windows, 
and  of  the  banking  company,  who  have  done  their  best  to  ruin  the  appear- 
ance of  the  main  street,  have  been  able  to  destroy.  One  comes,  round 
sudden  corners,  upon  genially  weathered  brick  walls,  upon  the  few  old 
things  that  I  have  mentioned.     These  are  cunningly  distributed  about  the 

1  The  agricultural  is  a  comparatively  new  note  people  of  the  craft.     Towns  in  those  days  paid 

in  Rye.     Arthur  Young  asserts  that  in  Edward  much  attention  to  the  nature  and  occupation  of 

V.'s  time,  and  for  centuries  before,  husbandmen  their    inhabitants.       Thus,    by    Rye    custumal, 

were  not  allowed  to  dwell  in  or  become  freemen  bachelors  were  expelled  from  the  town  as  not 

of  the  town,  Rye  having  no  need  or  place  for  conducive  to  the  steady  growth  of  population, 

H 


114  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

town.  They  refresh  one  at  moments  when  the  depression  caused  by 
active  modernisers  threatens  to  become  overpowering.  The  town,  in 
fact,  is  very  like  certain  musical  works.  It  has  an  imposing  overture 
—  the  Land  Gate  —  two  or  three  moments  of  excessive  beauty,  and 
a  great  deal  of  perhaps  necessary,  but  certainly  dull — even  repellent — 
"working  out." 

The  oldest  building  in  the  town,  the  already-mentioned  Ypres  tower, 
is  suggestive  enough,  but  not  markedly  beautiful.  It  stands  in  the  corner 
of  the  churchyard.  A  monument  of  rude  Norman  strength,  it  has  some  of 
the  qualities  of  Durham  Cathedral.  It  lies  as  heavy  on  the  face  of  the 
earth  as  did  the  hand  of  the  Normans  that  built  it.  The  barons  of 
Stephen's  time  built  an  enormous  number  of  these  fastnesses,  emulating, 
perhaps,  the  robber  barons  of  the  Rhine.  Of  such  the  Ypres  tower  may 
be  taken  as  typical.^ 

Immediately  opposite  it  stands  the  church,  a  pleasant  and  much-praised 
building,  in  the  centre  of  a  small  square  of  houses.  Archaeologists  and 
local  historians  declare  that  a  former  church  stood  over  against  the  Ypres 
tower,  to  the  south-east  of  the  present  one.  But  architects  point  out  that 
the  church  at  present  contains  Norman  arches  of  an  earlier  date  than  that 
assigned  by  archaeologists  for  the  destruction  of  the  hypothetic  earlier 
church.  Thus,  on  the  whole,  one  may  confidently  assert  that  there  never 
was  any  other  than  the  one  in  question.^ 

1  Mr  Basil  Champneys,   in  a  very  excellent  It  is  now  in  process  of  becoming  a  museum  of 

kind  of  superior  "  anti-scrape  tract,"  draws  atten-  local  antiquities.    The  building  which  housed  the 

tion  to  the  interior  doors  of  the  tower.    They  are  soup-kitchen  was  built  into  the  walls  of  the  tower, 

worth   attention   and   preservation.     De   Ypres,  It  was  an  early  Victorian  monstrosity,  and  has 

who  raised  it,  probably  had  designs  of  establish-  since  been  removed  by  the  very  commendable 

ing  himself  in  its  stronghold,  but,  as  we  have  local  Society  for  the   Preservation  of  Ancient 

seen,  he  became  a  monk  and  had  no  further  use  Buildings. 

for  it.    After  it  had  belonged  to  the  town  for         "  The  process  of  argument  is  as  follows  :  Stow, 

some  time  it  was  sold  to  a  certain  John  de  Ypres,  in  his  account  of  the  1378  destruction  of  Rye,  says 

who   probably   derived   his   name    from   it.      It  that  the  church,  together  with   the   town,  was 

subsequently  became  a  court-house,  then  a  jail,  destroyed  in  five  hours.    The  archEeologists  infer 

and  in  the  end  an  appendix  of  a  soup-kitchen,  from  this  that  the  church  must  have  been  made 


RYE  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  115 

Besides  the  Romanesque,  in  the  north  transept  the  church  contains 
specimens  of  Early  Pointed,  Perpendicular,  and  Tudor  stone-work,  some 
Jacobean  and  Georgian  woodwork,  and  a  respectable  proportion  of  the 
Vandal  achievements  of  Victorian  restorers.  Taken  as  a  whole,  the 
church  is  not  a  monument  of  congruous  architecture.  Successive  bands 
of  craftsmen  have  done  their  successive  bests  to  efface  all  traces  of  their 
predecessors'  works,  but,  the  modern  restorations  apart,  it  is  a  pleasant 
building  to  those  who  delight  in  what  one  may  call  the  more  domestic — 
the  homely — style  of  church  architecture. 

The  clock  is  traditionally  reported  to  have  been  presented  to  the 
town  by  Queen  Elizabeth  after  the  defeat  of  the  Armada.  Unfortunately 
for  the  tradition,  its  purchase  at  an  earlier  date  is  mentioned  in  the 
accounts  of  the  church.^  The  communion-table  in  the  north  transept  is 
said  to  have  been  part  of  the  spoils  of  a  captured  Spanish  vessel.  I 
have  found  nothing  to  confirm  or  refute  this  tradition.  It  is,  at  any 
rate,  a  piece  of  wood-carving  somewhat  more  modern  in  date  than  that 
assigned  to  it.  Yet  it  is  pleasant  to  look  at  the  cherubs  on  the  carved 
legs  and  to  imagine  them  in  the  chapel  of  some  golden  galleon,  lit  up 
by  many  candles  and  served  by  a  Spanish  priest  —  perhaps  the  very 
priest  who  ended  his  days  in  the  town.  For  we  read  in  the  church- 
wardens' books  : — 

"  1529.  Received  of  a  Spaniard,  the  which  was  a  priest,  for  lying  in 

the  north  chancel 1 7s.  4d. 

For  paving  the  Spaniard's  grave  .         .         .         2s.  od." 

of  wood,  like  the  houses.     But  stone  churches  payment,   several    previous    ones    having    been 

have  been  before  now  gutted  to  the  vv^alls  by  fire  recorded.    The  clock  is  certainly  a  fine  monu- 

in  less  than  five  hours,  and,  this  apart,  there  is  ment  of  the  skill  of  the  Winchelsea  clocksmith. 

not  the  slightest  evidence  of  another  church's  It  bears  on  its  face  a  couple  of  quarter-boys  who 

existence.  strike  the  hours,  and  its  long  pendulum  sways 

^  The  churchwardens'  accounts  contain  under  over  the  north  entrance  in  a  way  disconcerting  to 

1 5 16  the  following  item  :  "The  man  of  Winchel-  one  of  weak  nerves— a  way  reminiscent  of  Poe's 

sea  that  make  the  clock,  in  fuUe  pay*  of  his  "  Pit  the  Pendulum." 
bargain. ..6s.   8d."      This  was  probably  a  final 


ii6  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

The  churchwardens'  books  are  altogether  charming :  they  suggest  so 
many  pictures.     As  thus  : — 

"  15 13.  Received  for  waste  of  torches  at  the  burying  of  Gyles 
Benet 3s.  od. 

Angel  tapers  and  candles,  spent  before  our  time    ,  7s.  od. 

Expenses  of  them  that  holp  up  with  the  timber  in  St  Clere's 
chancel       ........  os.  4d. 

For  the  dinner  of  the  bishop,  and  fetching  a  cross  and  mitre 
from  Winchelsea         ......  9s.  4d. 

Paid  for  a  coate  made  when  the  Resurrection  was 
played  for  him  that  in  playing  represented  Almighty 
God  .........  IS.  od. 

For  an  iron  candlestick  standing  before  Our  Lady  of 
Pity IS.  od." 

The  clerks  must  have  had  pleasant  times  too. 

"1534.  A  pottle  of  malmesy  and  pannerd  of  cakes  for  the  clerks  at 
Ascension      .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         7d." 

occurs  on  every  feast  day  for  every  year.  But  the  clerks  and  the 
malmsey  and  the  Our  Lady  of  Pity  had  their  day,  and  under  1547  the 
churchwardens  write  : — 

"For  cleansing  the  church  from  Popery      .  .  .  _^i,  13s.  4d. 

Mending    and    white  -  liming    divers     places    where     the     images 

stood 4s.  lod." 

Upon  the  whole,  they  were  easily  and  cheaply  rid  of  Popery.  One  wishes 
one  could  as  well  to-day  cleanse  one's  house  of  heresy — at  a  cost  of  33s. 
4d.  and  a  coat  of  limewash. 

Of  other  religious  buildings  the  town  had  not  a  great  many.  There 
still  exists  the  chapel  of  the  Austin,  or  Eremite,  Friars,  who  settled  in  Rye 
before  the  time  of  Edward  III.      It  stands  on  the  east  side  of  Conduit 


RYE  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  117 

Street.  On  the  public  side  it  is  not  vastly  picturesque,  but  the  south  wall 
looks  on  to  a  charmingly  old-fashioned  garden,  and  contains  three  traceried 
windows.^ 

Looking  over  the  churchyard  from  the  south  is  an  ancient  house  that 
tradition  peoples  with  the  ghosts  of  Carmelite  Friars,  I  do  not  feel 
concerned  to  refute  this  assertion,  but  I  can  confidently  advance  the 
opinion  that  the  south  side  of  the  churchyard  is  a  pleasant  place  in  which 
to  walk.  For  one  thing,  it  is  always  in  the  shade ;  for  another,  it  is 
always  deserted.  Its  houses  contain  people  of  strange  trades.  A  herbalist 
used  to  hang  out  his  placard  there.  For  me  a  herbalist  has  always  an 
air  of  mystery — I  don't  know  why.  He  is  reputed  to  gather  his  herbs 
in  the  moonlight  off  graves,  and  so  this  herbalist  is  well  placed.  He  has 
only  to  steal  out  of  his  dark  house,  and  in  its  very  shadow  he  may  find 
his  simples  when  the  moon  shines.  The  church  looks  well  from  here,  but 
it  is  best  seen  from  the  narrow  street  at  the  western  outlet.  There  it  is 
framed  by  the  house-sides,  and  rises  up  from  the  ground  with  some  of  the 
majesty  of  a  cathedral.  Rye  church,  in  fact,  has  some  of  the  cathedral 
air  about  it.  Its  influence  does  not  penetrate  into  the  main  streets,  but  in 
its  immediate  vicinity  there  is  some  of  the  hush  of  a  close. 

Of  the  old  town  walls  hardly  any  remains  can  be  traced,  and  gf  the 
five  gates  that  the  town  at  one  time  possessed,  only  one — the  Land  Gate — 
remains.  This,  although  picturesque  enough,  does  not  call  for  more  than 
cursory  mention.  Of  the  other  defences  of  Rye,  the  Gun  Garden  lies 
near  the  Ypres  Tower.  At  different  times  this  must  have  been  furnished 
with  a  strange  assortment  of  artillery  that  never  saw  warlike  service.  The 
military  glory  of  Rye  passed  away  before  the  age  of  great  guns.  Never- 
theless, Rye  was  constantly  clamouring  to  the  Government  for  such  articles 


'  In  1572  it  was  assigned  to  the  Huguenots  for  A  little  time  ago  it  was  the  home  of  Salvationists, 

a  place  of  work  and  worship — ^just  as  was  the  but  it  has  since  been  purchased  by  a  "syndicate 

crypt   of  Canterbury   Cathedral  —  but    in   later  of  Churchmen." 
years  it  came  into  the  hands  of  even  newer  faiths. 


ii8  THE  CINQUE  PORTS. 

of  defence,  and  at  one  time  the  town  was  allowed  to  despoil  Camber  Castle 
of  its  Henry  VIII.  artillery;  at  another— in  1740— it  was  provided  with  a 
whole  magazine  of  warlike  stores.  These  included  "8  iron  ordnance,  18- 
pounders  of  9^  feet,  4  ladles,  and  4  sponges,  2  skeins  of  tarred  muslin,  a 
small  hammer,"  and  a  number  of  other  things.  Guns  and  Gun  Garden,  and 
what  remained  of  the  tarred  muslin,  afterwards  passed  again  into  the  hands 
of  Government  and  have  disappeared. 

Of  other  public  buildings.  Peacock's  Grammar  School  imparts  a  touch 
of  dignity  to  the  long  High  Street,  which  otherwise,  except  for  one  fine 
old  shop-front,  differs  little  from  any  other  High  Street.  Peacock's  School 
is  an  interesting  instance  of  local  spirit  expressing  itself  in  brick  of  Charles 
I.'s  time.  It  is  not  vastly  well-proportioned,  and  its  whole  effectiveness 
lies  in  a  slightly  sinister  powerfulness.  One  imagines  that  the  little 
scholars  must  have  been  frequently  and  thoroughly  swinged  by  the  local 
disciples  of  Ascham.  Upon  the  whole,  I  should  not  like  to  have  been 
John,  son  of  John  Dadd,  the  sexton,  who  stands  at  the  bottom  of  the  roll 
of  boys  at  the  foundation  of  the  school.  The  boys  were  taught,  besides 
the  three  R's,  only  the  art  of  navigation. 

After  the  schoolhouse,  in  point  of  antiquity,  comes  the  court-house, 
a  moderately  fine  Georgian  structure.  It  contains  the  town  records,  which 
have  been  rescued  from  the  picturesque  confusion  of  centuries,  bound,  and 
enshrined  in  an  iron  safe.  I  must  confess  that  I  regret  the  picturesque 
confusion  whilst  applauding  the  public  spirit  that  urges  the  Rye  people  to 
preserve  their  public  monuments.^  The  same  spirit  has  preserved,  for  us 
to  see,  the  skull  of  John  Breeds  in  his  habit  as  he  hung  and  died.  Breeds 
was  a  clumsy  murderer  who  set  out  to  kill  a  Mr  Lamb  and  killed  a  Mr 
Grebbell.  He  was  eventually  executed,  and,  as  I  have  said,  his  skull  still 
"hangs  in  chains"  in  the  court-house.  One  frequently  comes  across  the 
sinister  phrase,  but  hardly  realises  its  meaning.     Now  one  sees  that,  after 

1  Among  the  treasures  preserved  here  are  the  two  great  gilt  Georgian  maces.      The  smaller 
silver  ones  are  more  artistically  interesting. 


RYE  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  119 

death,  Breeds  had  his  body  confined  in  a  cage-work  of  iron  hoops  and 
chains,  for  all  the  world  like  the  skeleton  of  a  diver's  dress.^ 

I  have  spoken  of  medieval  Rye  and  of  Georgian,  but  I  have  left  to 
the  last  the  mention  of  its  Elizabethan  memories.  Rye  was  the  birthplace 
of  the  poet  Fletcher,  and  Fletcher  was  the  one  genius  that  Rye  produced. 
He  was  born  in  1576,  and  was  the  son  of  the  then  vicar.  Fletcher  I  have 
always  esteemed  above  most  of  the  greater  dramatists  of  his  age.  He  is 
most  known  as  a  collaborator — one  speaks  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  but 
Beaumont  was  a  mere  drag  on  his  more  brilliant  associate.  Fletcher  is 
accused  of  having  a  superabundance  of  fancy,  but  he  had  the  merit  of 
writing  in  a  clear,  limpid  style  when  all  the  great  writers  of  the  nation — 
even  Shakespeare — had  fallen  under  the  influence  of  Euphuism.  His  poem 
on  Melancholy  inspired  the  opening  lines  of  Milton's,  and  to  some  extent 
gave  the  form  to  it.  The  names  of  Fletcher  and  of  Mermaid  Street  are 
just  enough  to  connect — in  association — Rye  with  the  Elizabethan  writers. 
There  has  always  been  a  Mermaid  Inn  at  Rye,  and  one  remembers 
the  things  done  at  the  Mermaid  of  London.  If  Rye  romancers  and 
archaeologists  had  any  great  enthusiasm  for  the  poet,  I  feel  sure  that 
they  would  have  proved  by  inference  that  Shakespeare  once  dwelt  at 
the  Mermaid  Tavern,  and  that  the  tavern  in  London  was  named  after 
that  of  Elizabeth's  Rye  Royal.  But  the  only  person  that  ever  men- 
tioned Fletcher's  name  to  me  in  the  town  was  a  policeman,  who,  years 
ago,  assured  me  that  the  old  houses  in  Mermaid  Street  were  the  place 
of  Fletcher's  birth.  I  don't  know  who  was  the  policeman's  authority : 
perhaps  he  argued  from  analogy.  The  Elizabethan  houses  in  question 
make  Mermaid  Street  worthy  of  its  name.  The  Mermaid  Tavern,  too, 
is   worth   consideration.      It   was   for   many  years  a  dwelling-house  dis- 

^  Rye  has  more  skilful  and  more  repulsive  by  the  mother, 

murders  to  be  proud  of.      One  reads  in  Rye  "June  %i,th.   Marie   Goslings,  native  French 

registers  of—  wife  to  Philipe  Williams,  was  buried.     She 

'■^June    3^,     1599.     Annes,    d'^r    of    Philipe  was  executed  for  murdering  her  own  child." 

Williams,  was  burid.      She  was  murdered  And  there  are  others. 


no  THE   CINQUE  FORTS. 

tinguished  for  containing  a  quantity  of  fine  carved  panelling ;  but  of  late 
years  it  has  been  taken  in  hand  by  a  company  who  deserve  praise  beyond 
most  companies.  They  have  pulled  down  a  number  of  modern  walls, 
discovered  lost  doorways  and  hidden  oak  beams,  until  the  house  has 
become  a  fine  Tudor  building  once  more.  It  is  now  an  inn  of  a  sort 
principally  frequented  by  golfers  and  artists. 

At  the  top  of  Mermaid  Street  is  the  house  in  which  lived  the  flame  of 
the  First  Gentleman  of  Europe.  It  is  now  tenanted  by  Mr  Henry  James. 
Whether  or  no  the  archaeologists  of  the  future  will  argue  that  the  Shake- 
speares  of  to-day  visited  Mr  James  there,  and  whether  the  policemen  of 
to-morrow  will  point  out  some  Victorian  villa  as  the  residence  of  the  great 
writer,  I  should  not  care  to  say.  I  remember  being  told  by  a  lady 
that,  on  inquiring  for  the  former  residence  of  Thackeray,  she  was  in- 
formed by  a  post-office  functionary  that  no  person  of  that  name  had  ever 
been  heard  of  in  Rye  or  Winchelsea.  Yet  Thackeray  once  lived  at 
Winchelsea,  and  to  Rye  he  sent  Denis  Duval  to  school  at  Peacock's. 
Thackeray's  note-books  for  the  months  before  his  death  are  full  of  such  jot- 
tings as  :  "  Refugees  at  Rye. — At  Rye  is  a  settlement  of  French  refugees,  who 
are  for  the  most  part  fishermen  and  have  a  minister  of  their  own."  Evelyn, 
the  diarist,  came  to  Rye  to  meet  his  wife,  who  was  returning  from  France 
after  the  Restoration.  Since  Thackeray's  time  hundreds  of  distinguished 
persons  have  been  in  the  place  for  one  cause  or  another — mostly  to  admire 
and  to  pass  away.  I  neither  can,  nor  care  to,  chronicle  them.  Distin- 
guished politicians  come  to  golf  here,  for  the  golf-links  have  been  called 
the  finest  in  England.  It  is  true  that  every  course  in  the  country  boasts 
as  much,  but  I  confess  that  it  is  pleasant  to  lie  on  the  sandhills  there,  of  a 
hot  day,  watching  an  irritated  opponent  negotiating  a  ball  buried  in  sand. 

The  links  lie  out  very  near  the  end  of  the  world.  One  reaches  them 
by  a  light  railway  that  is  of  the  nature  of  a  caricature.  A  road  runs  out 
beyond  the  most  distant  hole.  It  vanishes  into  space.  I  find  it  impossible 
to  believe  that  anything  lies  beyond  but  the  sky  and  the  sand  and  the 


RYE  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  121 

ocean — unless  one  then  steps  off  the  edge  of  the  world.  Everything  is  so 
very  flat  out  there.  The  small  farms  cower  down  on  the  face  of  a  marsh 
that  cannot  be  part  of  a  spherical  world  ;  cower  down  like  partridges 
hiding  from  sight  in  a  stubble-field.  Over  them  hangs  an  immense 
inverted  sky. 

The  southern  sandhills  run  along  the  harbour  mouth — a  narrow  har- 
bour mouth,  protected  on  the  one  hand  by  wooden  piles.  A  few  ships 
are  moored  on  either  bank.  They  never  seem  to  move  or  to  have  any 
business  on  the  great  waters.  Of  course  they  must  have ;  but,  often  as  I 
have  been  there,  I  have  never  seen  one  of  them  hoist  sail  and  pass  the 
little  lighthouse.  Camber  village  lies  on  the  other  side  :  one  is  ferried 
across  to  it.  I  have  a  liking  for  Camber  because  of  the  ferry — there  is 
something  romantic  in  reaching  a  place  by  boat — but  I  know  of  no  other 
reason  for  a  liking.  It  is  very  isolated,  which  is  a  point  in  its  favour ;  but 
its  houses  are  quite  modern  and  unbeautiful.  A  stretch  of  pebbly  marsh 
lies  between  Camber  and  the  castle.  As  a  thing  to  walk  upon,  the  ground 
is  not  to  be  commended,  but  the  scenery  is  drearily  romantic — inspirational 
in  its  way.  The  castle  is  a  broad-based  massive  edifice.  It  was  built  by 
Henry  VIII.  as  a  protection  for  Winchelsea  harbour,  and  it  must  have 
stood  upon  the  sea-shore.  But,  as  I  have  said,  the  sea  and  the  harbour 
deserted  it,  and  it  now  stands  high  and  dry.  It  was  used  for  a  time  to  hold 
prisoners  of  war,  but  it  was  soon  dismantled.^  It  is  now  nothing  but  a 
roofless,  doorless  ruin  ;  but  it  is  an  excellent  place  for  prisoner's  base  and 
games  of  the  sort.  The  inner  tower  is  surrounded  by  souterrains. 
Perhaps  Henry  VIII.  had  not  in  mind  the  provision  of  hiding-places  for 

1  The  Act  of  Parliament  is  dated  26th  August  Richard  Cockeram  and  the  inhabitants  of  the 

1642.      It  provides  that  "the   divers   pieces   of  ancient   Cinque    Port    of   Rye    are    directed   to 

ordnance,  with  powder,  and  other  warUke  imple-  "  seize,  take,  and  remove  y«  ordnance,  &c.,  to  the 

ments  now  remaining  in  the  castle,  .  .  .  which  town  of  Rye." 

castle  being  altogether  unguarded  and  no  way  The  Castle,  or  rather  the  materials  of  which  it 

useful  for  the  defence  of  the  said  country,  y^  ord-  was  composed,  had  been  put  up  for  sale  ten  years 

nance,  &c.,  are  exposed  to  the  surprise  of  any  before,  but  no  purchaser  came  forward, 
ill-affected  or  malignant  person,"  &c.      Captain 


122  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

those  young  in  years  or  mind,  but  he  has  provided  splendid  ones.  As 
such,  the  place  is  educational.  One  understands  the  uses  of  castles  and 
fortresses  when  one  has  employed  them  in  this  way;  one  sees  the  kings 
and  queens  and  personages  of  history  so  much  better  after  one  has  breath- 
lessly crouched  in  a  half-earthed-up  tunnel,  whilst  the  footsteps  of  a  pursuer 
brought  down  fragments  of  stone  round  one.  Or  one  can  lie  on  the  slopes 
of  earth  in  the  shelter  of  the  outer  walls,  and  one  can  read  a  lazy  book  and 
be  beguiled  into  thinking  that,  after  all,  life  is  good.  One  has  the  old 
stones  all  round  one,  one  is  sheltered  from  the  wind  that  always  blows 
there,  one  hears  it  rustling  in  the  wall-flowers,  and  one  catches  a  glimpse 
of  the  lush  marsh-pastures  framed  in  the  grey  stone  of  a  dismantled  door. 


ROMNEY   MARSrtnN^EAR   WI^PRE; 


123 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

ROMNEY  AND    ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD. 

The  central  Port  can  hardly  lay  claim  to  the  greatest  of  antiquities  as 
far  as  foundation  goes.  Where  one  has  no  records,  no  mention  in  the 
works  of  ancient  topographers,  to  guide  one,  one  must,  perforce,  fall 
back  upon  the  philologist  who  examines  place-names,  upon  the  exca- 
vating archaeologist,  the  man  who  burrows  in  barrows.  Traditional 
philology  asserts  that  Romney  signifies  Roman  Island,  equals  Roman  ey 
in  Saxon  parlance.  The  more  scientific  philology  of  to-day  declares 
in  favour  of  the  reading  Rumen  ea  —  the  large  watery  place.  This 
version  is  not  vastly  modern.  Lambarde  affects  it,  adding :  "It  is 
written  in  the  records,  corruptly,  Rumenal  and  Romual.  Twyne  doth 
latine  it  Romanorum  mare,  as  if  it  had  been  Sea  in  their  time." 

One  finds  in  Romney  itself  no  traces  of  Roman  occupation,  no 
pieces  of  crockery,  no  coins  of  the  Cssars ;  yet  they  are  plentiful  enough 
at  Dymchurch,^  and  in  other  places  on  the  face  of  the  marshes.  Thus, 
to  confidently  assert  that  the  Romans  ever  had  a  town  on  the  present 
hillock,  the  erstwhile  island,  on  which  Romney  stands,  is  impossible. 
To  confidently  deny  it  would  be  unprofitable.  Seeing  that  they  certainly 
held    all    the    neighbouring    country,    marsh    and   upland,    for    centuries, 

1  A  paper  on  the  subject  of  the  Roman  remains      S.  Isaacson,  at  the  first  Congress  of  the  British 
at  Dymchurch  was  read  by  its  author,  the  Rev.      Archaeological  Society  at  Canterbury. 


124  THE  CINQUE  PORTS. 

that  they  shut  out  the  sea  from  the  Marsh  itself,  it  is  not  improbable 
that  they  here  had  a  settlement.  But  to  be  able  to  stand  upon  certi- 
fied Roman  ground  one  must  go  farther  afield  —  perhaps  to  Lympne 
itself. 

That  Roman  crockery  is  found  in  a  place  seems  to  me  not  sufficient 
proof  of  itself  that  the  Romans  were  ever  there.  As  far  as  the  liberties 
of  the  Ports — nay,  as  the  whole  coast  from  the  Reculvers  to  the  Cassi- 
terides — are  concerned,  we  know  that  the  merchants  of  Marseilles  and  of 
the  East  Mediterranean  had  been  from  time  immemorial  trading  with 
the  inhabitants.  Speaking  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Cassiterides,  Strabo, 
quoting  Posidonius,  says  :  "  Having  such  metals  as  tin  and  lead,  they 
barter  these  and  skins  with  the  merchants  for  earthenware  and  salt  and 
brazen  vessels.  Formerly  the  Phoenicians  alone  carried  on  this  traffic 
from  Gadeira,  concealing  the  passage  from  every  one ;  and  when  the 
Romans  followed  a  certain  shipmaster  that  they  also  might  find  the 
mart,  the  shipmaster  of  jealousy  purposely  ran  his  vessel  upon  a  shoal, 
and  leading  on  those  who  followed  him  into  the  same  disaster,  he  him- 
self escaped  by  means  of  a  fragment  of  his  ship,  and  received  from  the 
State  the  value  of  the  cargo  he  had  lost." 

That  the  Phoenicians  traded  with  ports  farther  East  seems  to 
be  proved  by  the  finding  at  Pevensey  of  coins  of  two  generals  of 
Alexander  the  Great.  The  Britons,  indeed,  far  from  being  the  painted 
barbarians  that  tradition  would  have  them  be,  seem  in  reality  to  have 
been  a  quite  sufficiently  civilised  people.  They  were  simple,  hardy, 
nomadic ;  they  had  a  religion,  and  were  observers  of  it.  This  before 
the  advent  of  the  Romans.  True,  they  are  said  to  have  dyed  them- 
selves with  woad,  but  I  rather  think  that  a  strict  rationalist  would 
deem  that  pigment  little  less  barbaric  than  some  of  the  ornaments 
with  which  we  bedizen  ourselves  to-day.  True,  they  sacrificed,  it  is 
said,  human  creatures  to  their  gods.  But  that  seems  little  less 
reprehensible   than   our   present   sacrifices   of   human   creatures   to   ideas 


ROMNEY  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  125 

much  less  spiritual.^  True,  also,  they  had  little  industrial  skill — found 
it  necessary  to  import  their  crockery  and  jewellery  from  foreign  parts. 
But  I  think  that  very  few  of  their  present  successors  in  the  land 
could  make  a  plate ;  and  few  would  have  the  taste  to  buy  a  wine-jar 
so  beautiful  in  form  as  many  that  are  almost  daily  turned  up  by  the 
plough  in  the  lands  giving  on  to  the  marsh  to-day. 

They  had  a  language  sufficient  for  the  expression  of  a  literature 
which  remains  unsurpassed ;  they  had  poetic  appreciation  that  one  sighs 
in  vain  for  in  the  Britain  of  to-day.^  They  must,  in  fact,  have  been 
a  folk  as  civilised  and  as  pleasant  as  the  gentle  islanders  of  the  lands 
of  Typee  and  Omoo.  The  thought  occurred  to  me  very  vividly  as 
I  lay  the  other  day  on  the  slopes  of  the  Roman  Castle  of  Pevensey 
reading  one  of  Melville's  books.  And,  even  as  the  islanders  of  the 
Marquesas  Were  vulgarised  by  the  conquering  races  of  to-day,  so  were 
the  islanders  then  ruined  morally  and  physically  by  the  grosser  Romans, 

The  Marsh,  we  may  consider,  was  in  those  days  a  more  or  less 
shallow  arm  of  the  sea,  separated  from  the  main  by  a  long  shingle 
bank  like  the  Chesil  Beach.  It  received  the  waters  of  the  river 
Limene — which  was  doubtless  the  Rother  of  to-day — and  of  the  in- 
numerable little  streams  and  springs  that  still  gush  out  of  the  hill- 
sides between  Appledore  and  Lympne.  In  the  heavy  clay  of  its 
bounding   slopes   grew  the   thick   woods,    abiding   places    of   the    inhabi- 

^  At  the  inquest  held  on  the  body  of  a  man-  ^  It  may  be  argued  that  the  Britons  of  before 
of- war  stoker  who  in  last  July  succumbed  to  Cffisar's  time  have  left  no  traces  of  a  literature; 
heat  apoplexy,  it  was  given  in  evidence  that  but  it  is  certain  that  it  was  not  from  the  Romans 
the  normal  mean  temperature  of  the  stokeholds  that  they  learnt  to  produce  poetry  like  that  which, 
was  invariably  115°  —  that  it  not  infrequently  beginning  with  the  verse  of  the  bards  of  Urien, 
rose  to  150°  to  180°.  Although  I  have  no  in-  led  up  to  the  masterpieces  of  Ap  Gruffyd.  More- 
tention  of  posing  as  a  militant  anti-militarist,  over,  the  ancient  Britons  certainly  maintained — 
I  am  almost  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  and  very  probably  listened  to — their  bards.  No 
stoker  in  question  was  sacrificed  to  the  military  one  could  accuse  the  British  of  to-day  of  main- 
idea  —  one  which  may,  without  much  opening  taining  a  good  poet,  or  of  listening  to  one  more 
for  denial,  be  characterised  as  "  much  less  spiri-  advanced  than  a  music-hall  singer, 
tual"  than  that  of  sacrifice  to  the  Deity. 


126  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

tants.  These  doubtless  added  to  the  flow  of  fresh  water  that  kept 
the  haven  scoured.^  It  was  not  until  the  Romans  had  been  for  many 
decades  masters  of  the  land  that  the  Marsh  began  to  silt  up,  to  become 
innable.  This  was  certainly  to  some  extent  caused  by  their  destruc- 
tion of  the  woods.  Their  numbers  in  this  part  of  the  country  must 
have  been  very  considerable ;  their  need  for  arable  lands,  their  con- 
sumption of  wood,  great  in  proportion.  They  had  certainly  potteries, 
limekilns,  ironworks,  and  perhaps  shipbuilding  -  yards  that  called  for 
large  forest  thinnings.  Thus,  little  by  little,  the  amount  of  water  coming 
from  the  land  must  have  decreased,  enabling  the  sea  to  fill  up  more 
and  more  the  mouths  of  the  harbours.  But  at  the  time  of  Caesar's 
landing,  and  for  perhaps  a  century  after,  the  marsh-lagoons  near  Lympne 
must  have  formed  one  of  the  finest  and  most  sheltered  of  harbours. 

One  has  no  means  of  knowing  where  Caesar  actually  landed.  There 
are  theories  more  or  less  accepted,  other  theories  quite  laughed  to 
scorn.  The  material  evidence  in  Caesar's  '  De  Bello  Gallico '  is  very 
slight,  yet  this  is  almost  the  whole  that  we  have  to  go  upon.  We 
know  that  he  left  a  harbour  on  the  opposite  shore  on  such  and  such 
a  day  at  such  and  such  an  hour.  This  harbour  may  or  may  not 
have  been  Boulogne.  His  cavalry,  lying  in  another  harbour  a  few 
miles  away — at  Ambleteuse,  perhaps — when  they  started  were  driven  back 
by  contrary  winds.  He  himself  drifted  about  in  the  Channel,  and  at 
last  got  near  the  land  somewhere — somewhere  within  the  present  liberties 
of  the  Five  Ports.  Where,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  Countless  archaeolo- 
gists have  written  pamphlets  innumerable  and  letters  to  the  '  Athenaeum,' 
to  prove  that  Caesar  landed  at  the  spots  favoured  by  themselves.  The 
greater  number  of  them,  ranging  from  Dr  Halley  to  Napoleon  HI.  and 
Mr  Francis  Vine,  favour  the  theory  that  the  landing  took  place  between 

1  Any  one  who  has  stood  beneath  a  tree  in  in  the  'Natural  History  of  Selborne,'  gives  the 
foggy  weather  will  appreciate  how  much  aerial  results  of  his  more  or  less  careful  observations 
moisture  foliage  will  condense.     Gilbert  White,      of  this  phenomenon. 


ROMNEY  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  127 

Walmer  and  Sandwich.  Others  nearly  as  numerous  imagine  him  to  have 
landed  somewhere  between  Hythe  and  Pevensey.  Professor  Airey 
favoured  the  last  named ;  the  Rev.  Mr  Beale  Poste  caused  amuse- 
rhent  to  Mr  Roach  Smith  and  his  fellows  of  the  British  Archseological 
Society  by  maintaining  that  the  author  of  the  Commentaries  landed 
at  Lympne. 

All  these  authorities  back  up  their  opinions  by  minute  calculations 
of  the  lunar -astronomical  kind  as  to  the  states  of  the  tide  in  the  year 
and  month  of  Caesar's  voyage.  But  the  whole  thing  is  so  obscured  by 
the  flamens'  yearly  alterations  of  the  Roman  calendar,  and  by  minute 
differences  of  interpretation  of  Caesar's  own  words,  that  one  is  little 
satisfied  by  the  perusal  of  th^ir  labours.  For  myself,  I  am  inclined 
to  the  opinion  that  Caesar  landed  within  the  limits  of  the  Marsh.  A 
small  book  by  Mr  F.  H.  Appach  makes  the  landing  take  place  at 
Bonnington,  a  tiny  village  on  the  lower  slopes  of  the  hills  a  few  miles 
to  the  westward  of  Lympne.  Mr  Appach  would  seem  to  have  made 
a  more  careful  local  examination  of  the  ground  than  any  of  his  rival 
theorists,  and  his  pamphlet  is  decidedly  the  most  convincing  of  the 
many  that  I  have  read.  The  strongest  point  that  he  makes  in  favour 
of  his  theory  refers  to  Caesar's  account  of  the  part  that  chariots  took  in 
resisting  his  landing.  "As  soon  as  the  Romans  drew  near  the  shore," 
says  Mr  Appach,  "the  British  cavalry  and  chariots  kept  making  hostile 
demonstrations,  according  to  their  usual  tactics,  all  along  the  water's  edge, 
sometimes  even  charging  into  it,  and  by  their  determined  aspect  causing 
the  Romans  to  hesitate."  Caesar's  words  are  :  "  Hostes  vero,  notis  omnibus 
vadis,  ubi  ex  littore  aliquos  singulares  ex  navi  egredientes  conspexerant 
incitatis  equis  impeditos  adoriebantur ;  plures  paucos  drums istebant,  alii 
ab  latere  in  universes  tela  conjiciebant."  ^  "Now,"  continues  Mr  Appach, 
"any  one  who  has  seen  a  collier  beached,  and  witnessed  the  efforts  made 
by  five  or  six  horses  to  draw  a  load  of  coals  through   the  shingle  with 

1  De  Bello  Gallico,  iv.  26. 


128  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

which  one  horse  easily  walks  away  on  the  road,  or  who  has  attempted 
to  ride  through  shingle,  will  agree  that  there  could  have  been  no  shingle 
at  the  place  where  the  British  chariots  and  cavalry  acted  in  this  manner. 
There  could  have  been  no  shingle  where  Caesar  landed.  Bonnington 
fulfils  this  condition.  There  is  no  shingle  along  the  inland  margin  of 
the  Marsh." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  if  we  allow  this  contention  to  weigh,  it  must 
have  been  on  the  shore  of  some  such  river  mouth  as  that  which  once 
covered  the  Romney  Marsh  that  Caesar  took  the  land.  It  is  urged 
against  this  contention  that,  in  the  account  of  Scaeva's  gallantry  after 
the  second  landing,  rocks  are  mentioned,  and  that  there  are  no  rocks 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Marsh.  But  this  is  quite  a  mistake.  Stray 
spurs  of  Kentish  rag  crop  up  throughout  the  foothills  of  the  district, 
and  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  no  such  rock  existed  in  the  old 
harbour  behind  Appledore.  The  Emperor  Napoleon  III.,  who  had 
careful  surveys  made  of  the  country  round  Deal,  declared  that  the 
Lesser  Stour  "is  incontestably  the  /lumen  of  the  Commentaries";  but 
it  might  just  as  well  have  been  the  Rother. 

Again,  the  country-side  of  the  '  Bellum  Gallicum'  was  certainly 
well  wooded,  although  checkered  by  arable  lands.  Now,  the  country 
round  Deal  and  Sandwich  is  not  in  the  least  well  wooded,  nor  is  its 
soil  particularly  adapted  to  the  growth  of  trees.  I  do  not  make  any 
pretensions  to  speaking  authoritatively  on  this  subject,  my  preference 
for  Bonnington  being  rather  instinctive  than  archaeological.  The  artistic 
impression  left  by  what  of  landscape-drawing  there  is  in  the  works  of 
Ca;sar  himself  certainly  seems  to  tell  in  favour  of  the  heavy  clay  soil, 
the  tree -laden  slopes,  and  the  darker,  moister  atmosphere  of  the  land 
to  the  west  of  Aldington  Knoll  rather  than  in  favour  of  the  open, 
sandy,  treeless  lands  round  Deal  or  Sandwich.  In  any  case,  nothino- 
that  makes  in  favour  of  Deal  or  other  places  does  not  do  as  much  for 
the  Marsh  village. 


ROMNEY  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  129 

There  are  embankments  near  Deal  that  are  locally  styled  "  Rome's 
work,"  but,  the  popular  name  apart,  there  is  nothing  to  prove  that  they 
are  of  Roman  origin  ;  nor,  that  granted,  does  anything  prove  that  they 
are  not  post-Julian  fortifications.  Moreover,  there  are  similar  embank- 
ments in  Bonnington  itself.  In  the  latter  place,  quite  lately,  skeletons 
interred  beside  Roman  vases  have  been  found  in  the  fields  just  north 
of  Bonnington  church.^ 

The  Marsh  between  Bonnington  bridge  and  Appledore  is  at  its 
deepest  below  the  low  -  tide  level.  According  to  the  map  made  by 
Elliott,  the  engineer  of  the  Level,  for  Lewin's  '  Invasion  of  Britain  by 
Caesar,'  the  marsh  at  the  foot  of  Aldington  Knoll  is  9  feet  6  inches 
below  low -water  level,  at  Bilsington  10  feet  6  inches,  at  Ham  Street 
1 1  feet  6  inches,  and  a  little  to  the  north  -  east  of  Appledore  1 3  feet 
6  inches.  This,  if  it  does  not  prove,  renders  extremely  likely,  that 
a  river  did  run  along  the  base  of  the  hills.  That  the  depth  of  the 
Level  itself  was  considerably  greater  in  the  days  of  Ceesar  may  be 
regarded  as  proved  by  the  fact  that  the  land  level  round  Norman 
churches,  like  that  of  Romney,  has  grown  so  much  higher  that  the 
capitals  of  the  earliest  pillars  are  nearly  reached  by  the  surrounding 
ground. 

Whether  or  no  Caesar  landed  in  the  district,  the  heights  domin- 
ating the  marsh  are  singularly  full  of  Roman  remains,  Lympne,  of 
course,  is  the  most  important  of  the  Roman  stations  of  the  neigh- 
bourhood. It  stood  at  the  harbour  mouth,  at  the  end,  too,  of  the 
road  that  ran — that  still  runs — to  Canterbury.  It  is  hardly  possible 
to  doubt  its  identity  with  the  Portus  Lemanis  of  the  Itinerary  of 
Antoninus    Augustus.      The    distance    from    Canterbury   almost    exactly 

1  This,  of  course,  does  not  prove  that   the  have    been    their    most   treasured    possessions, 

skeletons  are  those  of  Romans.     The  interment  Moreover,    one    has    to    take   into  account    the 

of  precious  articles  is  a  burying   characteristic  theory  that   the   marsh   was   tenanted,   even   in 

of  most  peoples,  and  the  specimens  of  Roman  Roman  days,  by  Teutonic  settlers. 
pottery  that  the  Britons  certainly  possessed  must 


I30  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

tallies  with  that  given  by  the  topographer;  the  great  castle  still  on 
the  hillside,  the  uncompromising  Stone  Street,  concur  to  render  doubt 
superfluous. 

The  Portus  Lemanis,  which  was  identical  with  the  Ai/ATyV  of  Ptolemy, 
was  one  of  the  chief  ports  under  the  governance  of  the  Counts  of  the 
Saxon  Shore.  One  may  even  deduce  for  the  Ports  a  certain  descent 
from  the  organisation  of  that  Roman  county  in  the  fact  that  the  supreme 
courts  of  the  Cinque  Ports  were  held  at  the  Shipway  Cross,  which 
stood  within  a  half  mile  to  the  east  of  the  present  township  of  Lympne. 
Lambarde,  indeed,  says  of  the  place,  "  They  of  the  town  enjoy  the 
privileges  of  the  Five  Ports,  and  doe  reserve  a  brasen  horn  and  a 
Mace  as  Ensignes  of  Castle  Guard  and  administration  of  Justice  at 
one  time  administered  there " ;  ^  but  Lympne  was  neither  a  corporate 
nor  non- corporate  member  of  the  Ports — at  least  I  have  been  unable 
to  find  anything  that  warranted  the  supposition.  The  place,  indeed, 
seems  to  have  lost  all  importance  with  the  departure  of  the  Romans. 
The  present  town  and  the  medieval  castle  stand  on  the  top  of  the 
hill.  The  Roman  castle — called  Stutfall — lies  rather  low  down  on  the 
hillside.  Its  lower  walls  were  washed  by  the  waters  of  the  harbour. 
That  it  was  a  place  of  the  first  importance  is  vouched  for  by  the  fact 
of  its  vast  size.  It  was  garrisoned  by  a  guard  of  the  Turnacensian 
contingent  of  the  Comes  Littoris  Saxonici.  Above  it,  on  the  site  of 
what  is  at  present  the  Court  Lodge,  stood  the  Roman  watch-tower. 

'  Leland  says  of  the  place  :  "  Lymme  hille,  or  arium  pertingit,  .  .  .  reliquies  supersunt  Britan- 
Lyme,  was  sumtyme  a  famose  haven  and  good  nicis  lateribus,  siHcibus,  calceque  cum  arena  et 
for  shyppes  that  myght  cum  to  the  foote  of  the  grumis  intrita  compacte  ut  nee  dum  vetustati 
hille.  The  place  ys  yet  cawled  Shypway  and  cesserint"  (Brit.,  ed.  1586,  p.  184). 
Old  Haven.  Farther  at  this  day  the  lord  of  Roach  Smith  also  excavated  the  remains  of 
the  V.  portes  kepeth  his  principal  court,  a  lytle  Stutfall  Castle,  and  published  his  resulting  con- 
by  est  fro  Lymme  hill,"  &c.  Camden's  account  elusions  in  a  book  styled  '  Excavations  at  Pev- 
is  as  follows  :  "  Stationem  hie  sub  Comite  littoris  ensey  and  at  Lymne'  {sic).  Similar  excavations 
Saxonici  Praepositus  numeri  Turnacensium  habuit.  have  been  conducted  by  Dr  Clarke  of  Bellevue, 
Viaque  hinc  Militaris  saxis  constrata,  ad  Cantu-  Lympne. 


ROMNEY  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  131 

Tradition  has  it  that  the  Castle  of  Billiricay  or  Belcaire,  that 
stood  near  the  Chapel  of  Our  Lady  of  Court-at- Street,  was  also  of 
Roman  foundation.  This  may  possibly  have  been  the  case,  but  the 
remaining  parts  of  the  castle  —  or  the  castalet,  as  Leland  calls  it — 
are  certainly  of  later  growth.  It  was  perhaps  a  signal  -  station  in 
connection  with  the  watch  -  tower  at  Lympne.  That  the  Romans  had 
a  system  of  telegraphy  in  the  district  seems  extremely  probable.  The 
mound  at  the  top  of  Aldington  Knoll  and  those  on  Stock's  Hill  in 
the  same  parish  probably  served  the  same  purpose. 

The  most  enduring,  the  most  far  -  reaching,  sign  of  the  Roman 
dominion  in  this  part  of  the  country  is,  however,  the  Marsh  itself 
That  they  alone  were  not  responsible  for  its  formation,  that  natural 
forces  had  the  greater  share  in  the  work,  one  knows.  But  they  elected 
to  aid  the  process  of  land-forming  rather  than  to  set  their  hands  to  the 
process  of  keeping  out  the  sea,  of  preserving  the  harbours.  For  a 
work  of  the  one  sort  or  the  other  some  organisation  as  vigorous, 
some  such  command  of  labour  and  labourers,  as  the  Romans  had,  was 
absolutely  necessary.  After  the  power  of  the  Roman  empire  had  been 
broken  the  task  could  only  be  carried  on  by  an  organisation  almost 
as  powerful  —  that  of  the  Roman  Church.  When  the  process  began, 
when  the  harbours  of  Lympne  and  West  Hythe  were  finally  despaired 
of,  one  has  no  exact  means  of  knowing.  It  must  have  been  owing 
to  a  gradual  silting  up  of  the  mouth  of  the  river  Limene,  a  silting  up 
that  extended  over  one  or  two  centuries  —  the  first  and  second  after 
the  birth  of  Christ.  What  the  process  actually  was  is  clear  enough. 
One  may  see  exactly  similar  ones  in  progress  all  along  the  southern 
shores  of  the  kingdom  of  to-day. 

For  certain  reasons  of  tides  and  winds,  these  shores  are  governed 
by  a  concatenation  of  circumstances  that  Mr  Montagu  Burrows  calls 
"  the  law  of  eastward  drift."  In  normal  years  the  prevailing  winds  of 
this  district,  the   strongest  winds,   are   those   that  blow  from  the  south- 


132  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

west.  One  may  see  it  in  the  growth  of  the  trees,  in  the  inclination 
of  the  herbage.  Acting  on  the  waters  in  the  narrow  seas,  this  sequence 
of  winds  causes  the  tides  setting  from  west  to  east  to  be  swifter,  more 
potent  as  bearers  of  flotsam  and  jetsam,  than  those  that  set  from  east 
to  west.  Thus  the  sands  and  shingles  of  the  sea- bottom  are  carried 
up  and  strewn  along  the  coast  by  the  rising  tides,  but  are  little  affected 
by  the  retiring  waves.  Selecting  some  shallow  on  the  shore  or  in 
the  offing  of  a  bay,  the  sea  casts  Its  shingle  on  it,  in  its  lee.  This 
mass^  forms  a  breakwater  in  whose  eastern  shelter  the  shingle  proceeds 
to  collect  until  it  stretches  in  a  long  line  from  west  to  east,  forming 
a  beach  right  across  the  mouth  of  the  bay.  This  stage  of  the  process 
may  be  seen  at  the  present  day  in  the  Chesil  Beach,  to  which  I  have 
once  or  twice  referred.  Where  a  river  exists  behind  this  beach-barrier, 
an  opening  gives  its  waters  exit  for  just  so  long  as  the  waters  of 
the  stream  have  power  to  scour  a  channel  and  to  keep  the  bar  from 
forming  an  unbreakable  barrier.  When  the  river  no  longer  has  this 
power  the  alluvial  soil  that  it  brings  down  helps  to  close  up  the 
exit,  to  form  more  or  less  dry  land  behind  the  bank  of  shingle. 
When  the  old  river  mouth  is  no  longer  practicable  the  river  changes 
its  course,  breaks  an  opening  for  itself  at  some  other  point  in  the 
shore  of  the  bay.  This  took  place  in  the  case  of  the  little  Sussex 
Ouse  within  historic  times ;  for  you  may  remember  that  that  river  in 
the  seventeenth  century  changed  its  course,  and  instead  of  running 
into  the  sea  at  Seaford,  suddenly  elected  to  find  its  way  out  at  the 
point  where  the  present  town  of  Newhaven  sprang  up. 

This  has  happened  once  or  twice  to  the  river  Rother  in  the 
larger  estuary  between  the  hills  of  Folkestone  and  Fairlight.  At 
some  time,  whilst  yet  the  kingdoms  of  Ceesar  remained,  the  river's 
western  exit  was  silted  up.  The  river  changed  its  course  and  ran 
into    the   sea    a    little    to    the  west    of    the   hillock    on    which    Romney 

'  The  technical  name  for  these  shingle  bars  is  "  full." 


ROMNEY  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  133 

stands.  The  sea  then  proceeded  to  stop  up  this  outlet,  and  the 
river  again  changed  its  course  to  where  the  streams  of  the  Brede 
and  the  Tillingham  sufficed  to  keep  open  a  passage  to  the  sea  beside 
the  rock  of  Rye.  Whether  the  Romans  at  Lympne  were  dismayed 
at  this  change  that  turned  their  harbour -guarding  castle  into  a  mere 
hillside  hold  one  has  no  means  of  knowing.  Perhaps  they  welcomed 
the  chance  of  adding  to  the  land.  Certain  it  is  that  if  any  people 
were  equal  to  the  task  of  keeping  the  roadway  scoured  the  Romans 
must  have  been.  Whether  or  no  they  found  the  task  too  great,  they 
finally  chose  to  set  themselves  the  task  of  securing  the  lands  that 
the  sea  had  given  them.  In  the  third  or  fourth  century  they  set 
about  the  building  of  the  Rhee  wall — the  rivi  vallum — that  runs  in 
a  northerly  direction  from  the  town  of  Romney. 

The  ultimate  result  of  the  change  of  the  river's  course  and  of  the 
building  of  the  Rhee  wall  was  to  enhance  the  importance  of  the 
town  of  Romney.  Indeed,  without  these  changes  it  could  hardly  have 
had  any  importance  at  all.  Lympne,  with  its  commanding  position, 
its  military  history,  would,  in  all  probability,  have  had  a  traditional 
right  to  the  privileges  of  Portship,  might  have  rivalled  Dover  itself. 
Instead  of  this,  with  the  building  of  the  Rhee  wall,  Romney  became 
a  town  with  a  magnificent  harbour — the  mouth  of  the  Rother.  This 
haven  was  sheltered  on  the  south  by  the  flats  of  what,  in  the  eighth 
century,  represented  Denge  Marsh,  and  by  the  shingle-fulls  that  these 
flats  were  beginning  to  gather.  The  town  grew  on  a  mudbank,  once 
the  delta  of  the  Rother.  Its  height  above  the  present  Marsh  is  very 
inconsiderable,  and  in  those  early  days  it  can  hardly  have  been  more 
than  an  eyot  covered  with  sallows,  and  in  flood-times  submerged  by 
brackish  water.  The  Marsh  itself,  even  though  the  main  of  the  sea 
were  shut  out  by  the  shingle  along  its  southern  face  and  by  the  wall 
to  the  west,  must  have  been  little  more  than  a  bog,  receiving  the 
drainings    of   the    northern    hills.       At  present,   the    land  from    all    wind 


134  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

quarters  slopes  imperceptibly  up  to  the  site  of  the  town,  one  writer 
going  as  far  as  to  call  the  whole  expanse  of  flat  land  a  hill. 

According  to  modern  theorists,  the  marshlands  were  inhabited,  even  in 
Roman  times,  by  immigrant  Teutonic  tribes.  Their  habits,  perhaps  resem- 
bling those  of  the  Dutch,  made  them  more  able  to  support  an  amphibious 
existence  than  the  Romans  or  their  British  subjects,  whom  civilisation  had 
rendered  unfitted  for  a  life  of  hardships.  Thus  Romney,  even  if  its  origin 
date  back  as  far  as  the  third  century,  was  probably  of  Saxon  foundation. 
Saxon  monuments  are  not,  however,  vastly  plentiful  in  the  district.  There 
are,  of  course,  a  number  of  barrows  along  the  tops  of  the  inland  hills  and  a 
number  of  place-names  of  Saxon  origin.^  The  county  fell  under  the  sway 
of  Offa,  king  of  Kent,  and  a  certain  number  of  grants  from  him  to  various 
individuals  are  traceable.  Ethelwan,  too,  writes  that  "  Anulph,  king  of  the 
Mercians,  destroyed  all  Kent  and  the  country  called  Mersewarum  "  (795) ; 
and  again,  "  Herbyth,  a  captain,  was  slain  by  the  Danes  in  a  place  called 
Mersewarum." 

Under  the  kings  of  the  later  Heptarchy  the  western  portion  of  the 
Marsh  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  monks  of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  a 
corporation  that  held  a  great  amount  of  land  within  the  liberty  of  the  Ports. 
Eadbriht's  charter  of  741  grants  to  them  "the  fishery  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river  Limene,  and  the  part  of  the  land  which  is  situated  in  the  Vill  of 
St  Martin's  (afterwards  part  of  Romney),  with  the  houses  of  the  fisher- 
men and  the  fourth  part  of  a  ploughland  around  the  place,  and  pasture 
for  1 50  beasts  near  the  marsh  which  is  called  Bisceopswic  as  far  as  Rhip 
wood  and  the  borders  of  South  Saxony." 

The  marsh  which  is  called  "  Bisceopswic  "  lies  within  the  bounds  of 
the  present  parish  of  Lydd.      It  formed,  as  the  hill  of  Romney  before  it 


'  Ireland,  in  his 'History  of  Kent,' styles  Rom-  church   is   said    to   be   a   building   of  the  ninth 

ney'luinli  a  "  magnilirciit  S.ixon  edifice";  but  century,  and  its  unpretentious— not  to  say  rude— 

my  lijilits,  SIM  h  as  they  arc,  let  me  see  no  traces  architecture  does  nothing  to  refute  this  theory, 
of   Saxon    work    in    the    building.       Bonnington 


ROMNEY  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  135 

had  formed,  the  delta  of  the  new  mouth  of  the  Rother.  All  round  it  on  the 
north,  south,  and  west,  lay  the  great  banks  of  shingle  which  have  since 
formed  the  nose  that  stretches  out  to  the  Dungeness  light  of  to-day. 
Even  now  a  great  part  of  the  land  lying  between  Lydd  and  Romney  is 
formed  by  a  coating  of  turf  above  the  fulls,  a  coating  so  thin  that  one  can 
thrust  a  walking-stick  down  through  the  sward  into  the  shingle  below. 

Immediately  after  the  receipt  of  the  Bishopwick  Marsh  the  Christ 
Church  monks  began  to  add  to  their  lands  by  inning,  and  within  little  more 
than  thirty  years  they  had,  according  to  the  map  in  Lewin's  '  Invasion  of 
Britain,'  inned  the  greater  part  of  what  is  now  called  Denge  Marsh, 
together  with  a  piece  of  ground  to  the  north  of  Lydd  town.  Lydd  itself 
probably  dates  its  existence  from  about  this  time,  its  nucleus  being  formed 
by  the  houses  of  fishermen  who  took  up  their  quarters  on  the  riverside 
facing  those  of  the  Vill  of  St  Martin's. 

Very  shortly  after  this  date — within  the  hundred  years — we  find  traces 
of  the  incursions  of  the  Danes.  In  893  or  thereabouts  this  folk,  having 
ravaged  the  greater  part  of  Picardy,  sailed  for  the  opposite  shore.  They 
seem  to  have  fallen  in  with  the  mouth  of  the  Rother  and  to  have  sailed  up 
it  for  some  distance. 

"  This  done,"  says  Lambarde,  speaking  of  the  exploits  in  France, 
"  Hasten  sent  away  250  of  his  ships  laden  with  spoil,  which  came  again 
hither,  entering  into  the  river  Rother,  .  .  .  and  by  sudden  surprise  took  a 
little  castle  that  was  four  or  five  miles  within  the  land  at  Apultre  as  some 
think,  which  because  it  was  not  of  sufficient  strength  for  their  defence  they 
abated  to  the  ground  and  raised  a  new,  either  in  the  same  place  or  else  not 
farre  from  it." 

I  have  always  thought  this  passage  stimulating  reading.  One  has  so 
much  occasion  for  the  imagination  afforded  by  it.  One  may  think  of  those 
Northerners  from  their  land  of  cold  grey  skies  and  beetling  bird-crags 
sailing  up  the  strange,  silent  stream  between  the  mournful  flats  and  the 
little  huts  at  the  river's  mouth.     They  went  past  the  open  ground,  up  the 


136  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

sluggish  stream  between  the  thick  walls  of  tree-trunks.  They  saw  strange 
folk  flitting  from  trunk  to  trunk  in  the  dark  silence,  heard  strange  cries 
echo  down  the  waveways.  The  boats  panted  up-stream.  They  were 
going  into  a  strange  land,  a  land  of  strange  creeds,  strange  habits,  un- 
meaning language,  strange  sacrifices.  They  went  up  -  stream  in  that 
morning  of  the  world,  up-stream,  holding  their  lives  in  their  hands,  as  to- 
day our  ships  pant  up  unknown  streams  of  an  Africa  not  so  remote,  not  so 
strange  :  as  ships  will  pant  up  unknown  streams  until  the  end  of  time. 

Of  the  doings  of  Saxon  or  Dane  in  the  land  there  is  not  much  trace  to 
be  found.  A  curious  marriage  contract^  of  the  reign  of  Cnut  is  still 
preserved  among  the  archives  of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury.  It  was  made 
between  a  certain  Godwin,  who  owned  a  great  part  of  the  marsh  and  the 
surrounding  hills,  and  a  certain  Byrthric,  of  whom  little  is  known.  Godwin 
at  the  time  was  courting  Byrthric's  daughter,  and  agreed,  if  she  favoured 
his  suit,  to  give  her  one  pound  of  gold  and  the  lands  of  Court  at  Street 
and  Burmarsh  with  horses,  oxen,  cows,  and  husbandmen.  What  Byrthric 
gave  I  do  not  know,  but  the  estate  was  in  the  end  to  fall  to  whomever  of 
the  pair  should  prove  the  survivor.  The  contract  was  entered  into  at 
Kingston  in  the  presence  of  Cnut  and  the  archbishop.  Godwin  was  happy 
in  his  wooing,  and  the  wedding  took  place  at  Brightling  in  the  presence  of 
a  number  of  sureties. 

Traces  of  Anglo-Saxon  law  survive  in  the  counties  of  the  Five  Ports. 
The  earlier  disregard  for  matters  of  primogeniture  entailed  the  laws  of 
Gavelkind  and  Borough  English,  which  still  prevail  in  the  neighbourhoods 
of  many  of  the  Ports,  and  the  comparative  equality  of  women  under  the 
custumals  of  most  of  the  Ports  is  undoubtedly  a  survival  of  the  times  when, 
as  in  the  case  of  Godwin  and  Byrthric,  a  woman's  consent  was  a  necessary 
condition  in  a  marriage  contract. 

In  the  Conqueror's  time  Romney  was  the  only  one  of  the  Ports  that 
offered  any  resistance  to  the  Normans.      Precisely  what  that  resistance  was 

1  Quoted  in  Somners,  Treatise  on  the  Law  of  Gavelkind. 


ROMNEY  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  137 

one  cannot  tell,  one  only  knows  that  the  Conqueror  marched  out  of  his  way 
to  inflict  on  the  town  "such  punishment  as  he  thought  fit."  Mr  Burrows' 
theory  is  that  Harold  had  stationed  his  navy,  such  as  it  was,  in  Romney 
harbour,  and  that  these  ships  cut  off  a  straggling  contingent  of  Normans 
on  the  road  to  Hastings.  This  may  well  have  been  the  case,  though  Mr 
Burrows  does  not  state  the  grounds  for  his  conjecture.  William's  anger 
seems  to  have  satisfied  itself  with  whatever  punishment  he  then  inflicted. 
Romney  probably  soon  resumed  its  former  state  of  prosperity,  and  the 
Normans  have  left  it  the  legacy  of  as  fine  a  church-tower  as  it  is  easy 
to  conceive.     They  have  done  less  for  towns  that  they  loved  more. 

The  town  in  those  days  was  held  of  Odo,  Bishop  of  Bayeux,  by 
Robert  de  Rumeny.  Robert  had  under  him  fifty  burgesses,  "  who  for 
their  services  at  sea  were  acquitted  of  all  actions  and  customs  of 
charge,"  save  those  of  felony,  breach  of  the  peace,  and  forestalling. 
These,  in  addition  to  those  that  owed  allegiance  to  the  monks,  must 
have  sufficed  to  make  the  town  sufficiently  prosperous.  In  addition  to 
this  it  had  the  honour  of  being  the  town  in  which  the  charters  of  the 
Ports  and  the  accounts  of  the  Yarmouth  fisheries  were  preserved. 
This  was  probably  because  the  BrodhuU  Courts  —  the  tribunals  for 
purely  internal  matters — were  held  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  the 
town.  These  courts,  which  it  is  supposed  took  their  names  from  the 
Broad  Hill  on  which  they  were  held,  had  originally  assembled  near 
Dymchurch,  but  after  the  rise  to  importance  of  the  port  of  Romney 
they  were  removed  to  the  latter  place.  The  neighbourhood  probably 
owed  this  honour  to  its  central  position,  lying,  as  it  does,  more  or  less 
nearly  midway  between  Sandwich  and  Seaford. 

Romney  itself  owed  its  importance  to  the  fact  that  its  port  was 
the  main  outlet  and  inlet  for  the  trade  of  the  Marsh.  This  had  now 
become  the  property  to  a  large  extent  of  the  Archbishops  of  Canterbury.^ 

1  The  archbishops  had  a  threefold  claim  to  the      the  archbishopric  itself;  secondly,  from  the  fact 
land  :   firstly,  those  arising  from  the  holding  of      that  the  archbishops,  as  titular  abbots  of  Christ's 


138  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

Thus  of  the  156  burgesses  assigned  to  Romney  by  the  Domesday 
Survey,  85  belonged  to  the  archbishop  in  virtue  of  his  manor  of 
Aldington,  and  21  were  more  or  less  under  his  keeping  as  burgesses 
of  Lamport.  This  governance  by  an  organisation  so  powerful  and  so 
eminently  practical  as  that  of  the  Church  began  quite  early  to  change 
the  character  of  the  Marsh,  to  add  to  its  extent.  St  Thomas  of 
Canterbury,  in  particular,  seems  to  have  taken  pains  to  set  his 
successors  an  example  in  this  as  in  more  important  matters.  The 
innings  of  the  archbishops  added  a  considerable  stretch  of  ground  to 
the  westward  of  the  Rhee  wall.  To  these  innings  the  names  of  the 
successive  metropolitans  were  given.  Thus  we  have  those  of  St 
Thomas,  made  between  1162  and  11 74,  those  of  Baldwin  between  11 84 
and  1 194,  those  of  Peckham  at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
and  those  of  Boniface  somewhat  later. 

These  and  other  improvements  in  the  marshlands  themselves  ren- 
dered the  neighbourhood  eminently  prosperous.  At  the  same  time, 
Romney  as  a  port  did  little  more  than  minister  to  the  local  needs. 
It  never  seems,  like  Dover  or  like  Winchelsea  and  Rye,  to  have  been 
a  port  of  general  embarkation  for  the  Continental  merchants  or  for 
pilgrims.^  It  was  perhaps  this  local  rather  than  national  importance 
that  accounts  for  the  little  notice  comparatively  that  it  received  from 
the  kings. 

The    patronage    of    the    archbishops    somewhat    made    up    for    this 

Church,  Canterbury,  owned  the  lands  belonging  III.   from  the  jurats   of  Romney  to  Sir  R.  de 

to  the  monks  of  that  establishment ;  and  thirdly,  Mortimer,   they    assert    that,   having    diligently 

that  they  subsequently  had  granted  to  them  the  searched  through  the  cellars  of  the  town,  they 

holdings  that  were  taken  away  from  the  foreign  can  only  find  four  tuns  of  wine  "a  nostre  tast" 

abbeys    on   the   dissolution   of  those  bodies   in  —to   our  taste,  "that   might  be   profitable  and 

England.  pleasing  to  your  lordship."     Sir  R.  had  offered 

'  Thus,  although  the  Romney  wine,  imported  to  purchase  six.     The  price  of  the  four  tuns  was 

in  the  town  ships,  was  famous  throughout  the  34   marks.      (From   a   book  of  Romney  Town 

neighbourhood,  it  does  not  seem  to  have  pene-  Records  in  the  College  of  S.  Katherine,  Camb., 

trated  far  inland.     Its  quantity  was  perhaps  not  quoted  by  the  Hist.   Man.  Commissioners.) 
very  large  ;   for  in  a  letter  of  the  33rd  Edward 


ROMNEY  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  139 

royal  neglect.  A  Becket  more  than  once  trusted  himself  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  the  townsmen,  and  twice  made  frustrated  attempts  to 
embark  from  the  port  of  Romney  when  escaping  from  the  wrath  of 
Henry  II.  These  were  the  days  of  the  town's  prosperity.  In  later  times 
it  did  little  to  distinguish  itself  Its  subordination  to  the  over-lords  of 
Canterbury,  which  at  first,  under  a  far-seeing  policy  of  interested  owners, 
had  made  it  flourish,  gradually  changed  its  character  as  the  Church 
itself  lost  its  purity  and  its  mission.  From  a  protecting  mistress  the 
Church  was  changed  into  a  mere  extortioner,  just  as  in  the  kingdom 
at  large  the  archbishops,  who,  as  men  like  Anselm  and  St  Thomas, 
had  been  sturdy  withstanders  of  royal  encroachments,  became,  as  men 
like  the  haughty  Courtenay,  mere  drags  on  the  progress  of  the  king- 
dom towards  its  constitutional  destinies. 

Romney  itself  remained  under  the  tutelage  of  Canterbury  up  till 
the  bitter  end,  up  till  the  time  when  Canterbury  lost  its  temporal  power 
in  the  land.  In  this  it  was  alone,  and  most  unfortunate,  of  the  Ports. 
Even  Hythe  contrived  before  the  Reformation  to  extort  from  the 
archbishops  the  right  to  pay  for  the  privilege  of  having  a  bailiff  of 
its  own ;  but  Romney,  in  spite  of  its  never  -  ceasing  petitions,  was 
never  allowed  this  favour.  On  one  occasion,  seizing  the  opportunity 
of  a  commotion  in  national  affairs,  the  town  folk  tried  to  conciliate 
the  usurper  Richard  III.  by  presents  meant  to  ensure  the  conferring  of 
a  bailiffship  on  the  town.  Richard  appears  to  have  ignored  the  petitions, 
and  the  townsmen  proceeded  to  take  the  desperate  and  audacious  step 
of  electing  a  bailiff  without  warrant  of  any  kind  other  than  that  of 
their  own  wills.  But  on  the  deposition  of  Crookback  retribution  over- 
took them,  and  they  sank  once  again  into  their  fbrmer  state.^ 

'  The  corporate  body  of  the  town  consisted  of  tote   la   commune,  iront  a  sa  meson,  et   le   dit 

twelve  jurats,  who,  of  course,  were  forced  to  serve.  desobeisant,  sa  femme,  et  ses  enfants  et  autre 

"  Si  ascun  ne  voile  faire  office  de  jure,"  says  the  mayne,   esteront   de   sa   meson    et    fermera   les 

thirteenth-century  custumal  of  the  town,  "apres  fenestres,    et    cet    ces    deyvont    ils    a    seler    et 

la  election  de  la  dite  commune  .  .  .  le  bailiff  od  sequestrer."     See  also  Appendix. 


I40  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

That  the  Marsh  and  the  district  generally  reached  a  high  state 
of  prosperity  under  the  ecclesiastical  rule  is  nevertheless  certain.  One 
has  only  to  look  at  churches  like  that  at  Newchurch  to  realise  as 
much  ;  the  great  size  and  great  number  of  these  buildings  is  suf- 
ficient evidence  of  how  thick  and  how  rich  its  population  must  have 
been.  The  great  storm  of  the  8th  of  Edward  I. — the  storm  that  ruined 
Old  Winchelsea — is  traditionally  reported  to  have  done  widespread  damage 
to  the  town  and  the  marshland  peoples.  It  is  said  that  this  storm,  by 
sweeping  away  the  accumulated  fulls  along  the  shore  between  Romney 
and  Hythe,  necessitated  the  building,  or  perhaps  the  rebuilding,  of  the 
sea-wall.  This  may  or  may  not  have  been  the  case.  In  the  preceding 
reign,  in  any  case,  the  corporation  of  Romney  Marsh  had  been  formed. 
The  charter  of  Henry  1 11.^  gives  this  body,  which  was  independent  of 
the  archbishops,  the  power  to  take  what  steps  they  thought  fit  for  the 
preservation  of  the  Marsh  from  the  overflowings  of  the  sea  and  of 
the  river  Limene.  The  corporation  had  powers  to  levy  the  rates  now 
called  scots  to  defray  their  expenditure  for  these  purposes.  These 
charters  were  confirmed  by  several  subsequent  kings — Richard  II., 
Henry  IV.,  and  Henry  VI.  Finally,  by  Edward  IV.  the  jurats  were 
granted  an  extension  of  their  powers,  were  incorporated  into  one  body, 
and  allowed  to  hold  a  court  from  three  weeks  to  three  weeks.  These 
privileges  were  granted  according  to  the  royal  patent  with  a  view  of 
inducing "  men    to    reside   upon    the    Marsh,    "  then   much   deserted  owing 

•  This,  however,  was  by  no  means  the  original  supplementary  ordinance  was  issued  in  the  42nd 
charter  of  the  commissioners  of  the  level,  though  of  the  same  reign.  It  is  called  Henry  de  Bath- 
it  is  the  earliest  traceable.  It  begins  (36th  Henry  onia's  Ordinance,  in  reference  to  Heniy  de 
III.):  "Because,  by  24  lawful  men  of  R.  M.  Bathonia,  to  whom  the  matter  was  given  in 
(Time  out  of  Mind)  thereunto  chosen  and  sworn,  charge.  Another  Ordinance  was  issued  in  the 
distresses  ought  to  have  been  made  upon  all  i6th  Edward  I.,  &c.  In  the  '  Laws  of  the 
those  who  have  lands  and  tenements  in  the  said  Sewers,'  published  1732,  a  number  of  specimen 
Marsh,  ...  we  have  granted  to  the  said  24  men,  trials  under  these  Ordinances  is  given,  together 
That  for  the  safety  of  the  s''  Marsh,  they  now  with  the  forms  of  oaths  for  the  jurors,  bailiff, 
cause    these    distresses    to    be    done,"   &c.      A  collectors,  and  defrayers,  &c. 


ROMNEY  AND  ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD.  141 

to  the  danger  resulting  from  foreign  invasions  and  the  unwholesomeness 
of  the  soil  and  situation."  ^ 

What  must  have  been  the  sanitary  state  of  the  Marsh  at  that  date 
it  is  difficult  to  conceive  ;  it  must  have  been  extraordinarily  unfit  for 
habitation,  if  even  the  medieval  inhabitants  of  the  country  found  the 
place  uninhabitable.  That  its  reputation  for  this  failing  continued  bad 
for  several  centuries  one  knows  well  enough.  Lambarde  writes  of  it 
thus :  "  The  place  hath  in  it  sundry  villages,  although  not  thick  set 
nor  much  inhabited,  because  it  is  Hyeme  malus,  .instate  molestus  Nun- 
quam  bonus,  Evill  in  winter,  grievous  in  summer  and  never  good,  as 
Hesiodus  (the  old  poet)  sometime  said  of  the  country  where  his  Father 
dwelt.  And  therefore  very  reasonable  is  their  conceit,  which  doe  imagine 
that  Kent  hath  three  steps  or  degrees,  of  which  the  first  (say  they) 
offereth  Wealth  without  Health  ;  the  second  giveth  both  Wealth  and 
Health;  and  the  third  affordeth  Health  only  and  little  or  no  Wealth. 
For  if  a  man,  minding  to  pass  through  Kent  towards  London,  should 
arrive  and  make  his  first  step  on  land  in  Rumney  Marsh,  he  shall 
finde  rather  good  grasse  under  foot  than  wholesome  aire  above  the 
head ;  again,  if  he  step  over  the  hills  and  come  to  the  Weald,  he 
shall  have  at  once  the  commodities,  both  Cixli  and  Soli,  of  the  Aire 
and  of  the  Earth  :  But  if  he  pass  that  and  climb  the  next  step  of 
hills  that  are  between  him  and  London,  he  shall  have  wood  and  conies 
and  corn  for  his  wealth,  and  (towards  the  increase  of  his  health)  if 
he  seek  he  shall  finde  Famen  in  agro  lapidoso,  a  good  stomack  in  the 
stonie  field.  No  marvel  is  it,  therefore,  if  Rumney  Marsh  be  not 
greatly  peopled,  seeing  that  most  people  be  yet  of  Porcius  Cato  his 
mind,  who  held  them  stark  mad  that  would  dwell  in  an  unwholesome 
air  were  the  soile  never  so  good  and  fertile." 

^  I  have  neither  space  nor  inchnation  to  trace  has   always   been   the   pattern   after  which    the 

the   gradual  development  of  this  body  until  it  administrations   of  the   other  marshy  places  of 

became  the  highly  efficient  one  that  at  present  the  realm  have  been  modelled, 
administers  the  level.     Such  as  it  was  and  is,  it 


142  THE   CINQUE   PORTS. 

Lambarde  proceeds  to  catalogue  the  then  privileges  of  the  dwellers 
within  the  Liberty  of  the  Marsh  as  follows:  They  have,  "moreover, 
the  return  of  all  the  Princes'  Writs,  the  benefits  of  all  fines,  forfeits 
and  amerciaments,  the  privilege  of  Leet,  lawday  and  tourne,  and  ex- 
emption from  tolle  and  tare,  scot  and  lot,  fifteen  and  subsidy,  and 
from  so  many  other  charges  as  I  suppose  no  one  place  within  the  Realm 
hath.  All  which  was  done  (as  it  appeareth  in  the  charter  itself)  to 
allure  men  to  inhabit  the  Marsh,  which  they  had  before  abandoned, 
partly  for  the  unwholesomeness  of  the  soil,  and  partly  for  fear  of  the 
enemie,  which  had  often  brent  and  spoiled  them.  And  whereas  this 
princelie  policy  hath  not  found  such  prosperous  success  as  the  like  did 
in  the  City  of  Alexandria,  builded  by  Alexander  the  great,  and  in 
Newhaven,  founded  by  Francis  the  French  King,  that  is  chiefly  to 
be  imputed  to  the  incommoditie  of  the  place,  the  which  has  no  one 
good  Haven  or  Creek  for  enjoying  the  benefits  of  the  Sea."  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  Romney  harbour  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth  was  a  thing 
of  the  past.  Leland,  indeed,  states  that  "  Rumeney "  had  at  one  time 
a  pretty  good  haven,  so  that  ships  could  approach  very  near  the  town; 
and  the  oldest  inhabitants  of  that  day  asserted  "that  wythyn  the  re- 
membrance of  men  shyppes  have  come  hard  up  by  the  towne  and 
cast  ancres  yn  one  of  the  churcheyardes.  The  se  is  now  a  ii  miles  fro 
the  towne,  so  sore  thereby  decayed  that  wher  ther  wher  iii  great 
paroches  and  chirches  sumtyme,  is  now  scarce  one  well  maynteined."  ^ 

From  the  fact  that  ships  had  cast  anchors  in  the  churchyard  one 
may  be  allowed  to  concede  a  certain  amount  of  truth  to  the  local  tra- 
dition that  it  was  the  great  storm  of  the  8th  Edward  I.  that  struck 
the  first  blow  against  the  prosperity  of  Romney.     If  it  be  a  fact  that 

'  Jeake  ('  Charters  of  the  Cinque  Ports,'  p.  109)  since  deceased,  told  me  that  it  [St  Nicholas- 
proves  that  the  three  churches  of  St  Nicholas,  the  present  church]  was  not  the  biggest,  but 
Lawrence,  and  another  were  standing  at  least  the  eldest  of  the  iii. ;  and,  as  he  was  pleased  to 
up  till  the  i8th  Henry  VIII.;  "An  ancient  term  it,  the  Mother  Church,  and  so  escaped  the 
gentleman   of  the   town,  of  my  Acquaintance,  fatal  ruin  which  the  others  suffered." 


ROMNEY  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  143 

the  ships  anchored  in  the  churchyard  of  aforetime,  it  follows  that  the 
sea  must  at  some  time  before  its  final  receding  have  encroached  on 
the  land.  The  same  storm  is  said  to  have  so  choked  up  the  mouth 
of  the  Limene  that  that  stream  was  forced  to  find  another  exit— the 
exit  opened  for  it  near  the  Old  Winchelsea  that  the  wind  and  waves 
had  destroyed.^  Thus  the  storm  was  triply  disastrous  for  Romney. 
It  rendered  the  Marsh  uninhabitable,  destroyed  a  part  of  the  town 
itself,  choked  up  its  most  valuable  asset — its  harbour.  One  blow  was 
as  serious  as  the  other.  Romney  was,  as  I  have  said,  almost  entirely 
dependent  as  a  port  upon  the  traffic  of  its  own  part  of  Kent.  It 
was  neither  a  great  wine-importing  place  nor  one  from  which  travellers 
usually  took  ship  for  France  or  the  shrines  of  St  James  and  of  the 
Holy  Land. 

The  greed  of  the  archbishops  allowed  the  town  no  relief  from  the 
burdens  imposed  on  it,  and  doubtless  the  growing  ecclesiastical  apathy 
precluded  the  Church's  taking  steps  for  the  restoration  of  prosperity 
to  the  Marsh.  Without  allowing  for  some  such  cataclysm  it  is  difficult 
to  account  for  the  depopulation  of  which  Lambarde  speaks.  That  the 
French  and  other  piratical  incursions  may  have  had  something  to  do 
with  it  may  be  granted,  although  we  have  no  special  records  of  foreign 
damage  done  to  Romney  or  the  marshland  towns  and  villages.  But 
the  folk  of  the  other  ports  recovered  with  such  frequency  and  such 
apparent  ease  from  similar  disasters  that  there  must  have  been  other 
causes  of  the  decay  of  this  particular  district. 

The  naval  contributions  of  the  town  of  Romney  were  never  very 
great  in  proportion  to  those  of  the  rest  of  the  Ports.  During  the 
years   of  its   prime   its   assessment   amounted   to   the   number   of  five ;  ^ 

1  The  tradition  is  vouched  for  by  Camden,  who  (a.D.  1293),  "Romenhall  portus  capitalis  at  Lyde 

makes  the  storm  that  changed  the  course  of  the  membra  ejusdem  ;  qui  portus  cum  suis  membris 

river  occur  in  1250.     Jeake  places  it  in  the  8th  inveniet  Regi  quinque  naves  in  forma  praedicta." 

Edward  III.  The  contributions  of  Romney  to  the  "purses"  of 

^  According  to  the  Red  Book  of  the  Exchequer  the  Brodhulls  remained  respectable,  even  when 


144  THE    CINQUE  PORTS. 

to  the  siege  of  Calais  in  1347  it  sent  four  vessels,  and  the  number 
gradually  fell  until  it  reached  the  vanishing-point.  Shortly  after  the 
year  of  the  siege  the  town  seems  to  have  found  the  burden  of  finding 
ships  almost  insurmountable.  In  135 1  Romney  was  either  unable  or 
unwilling  to  find  its  quota,  and  a  royal  order  was  issued  that  the  place 
was  to  lose  its  privileges  as  one  of  the  Cinque  Ports.  These,  how- 
ever, were  shortly  afterwards  restored. 

The  town  did  not  without  a  struggle  resign  itself  to  its  fate.  It 
made  constant  efforts  to  reopen  its  haven,  spending  from  time  to  time 
considerable  sums  on  the  vain  attempts.  One  has  a  certain  amount 
of  light  thrown  on  the  subject  by  the  records  of  the  town  as  published 
by  the  Historical  Commissioners.  The  townsmen  tried  every  possible 
means  of  bringing  the  water  back  to  the  town.  At  one  time  they 
attempted  to  dig  an  entirely  new  harbour ;  five  years  later,  we  find 
them  spending  v/z".  iiii.r.  nd.  on  trying  to  reopen  the  ancient  channel 
of  the  river  Limene.^  These  essays  they  continued  unaided  throughout 
the  fifteenth  and  well  on  into  the  sixteenth  century.  Elizabeth,  ever 
intent  on  preserving  the  harbours  of  the  kingdom,  granted  the  town, 
besides  the  rather  unprofitable  honour  of  a  mayor  and  corporation,  the 
much  more  valuable  gift  of  the  considerable  tract  of  land  over  which 
the  river  Limene  had  once  flowed  between  Appledore  and  Romney  it- 
self. This  addition  to  its  wealth  did  something  to  re-establish  the 
corporation's  finances,  but  nothing  appreciable  for  the  reopening  of  the 
harbour. 

From  the  times  of  Elizabeth,  Romney  sank,  like  so  many  of  its 
brother  ports,  out  of  the  pages  of  history  in  the  large.  Romney  and  the 
Marsh  neither  witnessed  nor  felt  any  immediate   effects  from  the  naval 


others  of  the  Ports  had  diminished.     Thus  to  '  "  Et  de  v/«.  iiiij.  \\d.  solutis  Andrseas  Colyn, 

that  of  the  loth  Henry  VII.  its  contribution  was  pro  dykynk  in  le  Ry,  sicut  continetur  ibidem." — 

xij.  viiirf.,  whilst   Winchelsea   and   Hythe   paid  Report  4  of  Hist.  Man.  Comm. 
only  vij.  m\\d.,  and  Rye  xj. 


ROMNEY  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  145 

wars  of  the  sixteenth-eighteenth  centuries.  Gossip  alone  connects  it  with 
foreign  invasion.  Thus  one  may  read  :  "13  April  1692. — It's  sayd  that 
some  gentlemen  from  France  landed  lately  at  Rumney  Marsh ;  three 
were  taken,  two  made  their  escape,  but  one  is  in  custody.  It's  also  sayd 
they  have  some  treasonable  papers  in  the  ship  ;  it's  sayd  likewise  that, 
the  last  night  a  sham  declaration  from  K.  James  was  posted  upon  the 
town."  1  More  than  this  I  have  not  been  able  to  discover.  But  if 
Romney  disappeared  from  history,  it,  at  least,  played  its  part  manfully 
enough  in  what,  if  it  was  not  quite  a  national,  was  at  least  a  littoral 
movement — the  pursuit  of  smuggling.  That,  until  quite  late  days,  this 
was  nearly  the  staple  industry  of  the  Marsh  we  have  ample  means  of 
knowing.  To  the  introduction  of  wealth  by  its  means  we  must  largely 
attribute  the  fine  Georgian  houses  that  throughout  the  Marsh  confront 
one  at  sudden  turns  of  the  lonely  roads.  To  it,  too,  one  may  attribute 
the  comparative  flourishing  of  towns  like  Romney  and,  more  especially, 
like   Lydd. 

Ireland,  the  early  nineteenth-century  historian  of  the  county  of  Kent, 
at  the  end  of  a  lofty  denunciation  of  the  detractors  of  this  latter  nest 
of  smugglers,  lapses  into  the  following  naive  and  rather  damaging  ad- 
mission :  "  Lydd  occupies  a  very  extensive  site,  consisting  of  small  farm- 
houses, with  a  few  shops  placed  near  together,  without  much  regularity. 
It  has  been  supposed  that  the  illicit  commerce  of  smuggling  was  formerly 
carried  on  here,  as  the  principal  employment  of  the  inhabitants ;  but  con- 
sidering the  number  of  revenue  officers  stationed  in  the  neighbourhood 
and  the  vigorous  activity  and  loyal  disposition  of  the  people  of  all  ranks, 
it  is  probable  there  is  more  of  calumny  than  truth  in  such  a  reflection  upon 
their  principles  and  conduct.  We  must,  however,  confess  that  it  is 
difficult  to  imagine  in  what  manner  such  numbers  of  stout,  hale-looking 
men  as  are  seen  constantly  sauntering  about  and  hovering  upon  the 
coast  can   provide  food  for  their  numerous   families  without  any  visible 

'  Letters  from  Rich,  Lapthorne  to  Rich.  Coffin,  5th  Report  of  Hist.  Man.  Comm. 

K 


146  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

occupation.  As  to  fishing,  very  little  is  carried  on  here,  the  trade  being 
still  less,  and  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Lydd  is,  of  all  parts  of  the 
Romney  Marsh,  the  least  capable  of  affording  agricultural  employment 
to  such  an  increasing  population."  It  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred 
to  the  charitable  topographer  to  suggest  that  the  hale  and  stout  men  of 
Lydd  can  have  earned  an  honest  livelihood  by  taking  in  each  other's 
washing. 

Of  the  habits,  customs,  modus  operandi,  and  so  on  of  the  latter-day 
smugglers  of  the  Marsh  I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  in  my  next 
chapter;  but  something  is  worth  mention  of  the  earlier  contraband  trade 
that  flourished  excessively  in  the  previous  centuries,  and  out  of  which 
the  later  industry  certainly  took  its  rise.  This  was  the  "  owling,"  or 
wool,  trade. 

The  growth  of  wool  has  from  time  immemorial  been  one  of  the  chief 
sources  of  wealth  of  the  country.  Indeed,  in  medieval  times  the  wool- 
trade  was  its  staple  industry.  According  to  the  economical  ideas  then 
prevailing,  the  retention  of  as  much  of  this  precious  article  as  was  in  any 
way  possible  was  almost  the  only  commercial  canon  of  the  legal  system. 
In  the  time  of  Edward  I. — a  king  to  whom  every  credit  should  be  given 
for  his  efforts  to  promote  the  trades  and  industries  of  this  realm  of 
England— a  commission  was  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  best  means  of 
preventing  the  export  of  fleeces  from  the  kingdom.  The  commission 
advocated  the  imposition  of  a  tax,  and  accordingly  imposts  varying 
between  20s.  and  40s.  a  bag  were  made.  Edward  III.,  whose  queen's 
hobby  was  the  establishment  of  Flemish  weavers  in  England,  absolutely 
prohibited  the  exportation  of  the  precious  fleeces,  though  I  remember  to 
have  read  in  a  paper  on  the  merits  of  the  Romney  Marsh  sheep  that 
Edward,  or  perhaps  his  son,  the  Black  Prince,  presented  the  King  of 
Spain  with  a  certain  number  of  those  animals,  from  which  the  famous 
breed  of  merino  sheep  is  said  to  have  taken  its  rise.  Elizabeth,  who 
also  favoured  the  introduction  of  Flemish  wool-weavers,  kept  these  pro- 


ROMNEY  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  147 

hibitive  duties,  and  enactments  backed  by  death  and  mutilation  penalties, 
in  full  force.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  duties  and  the  "free-trading" 
corollary  remained  in  a  more  or  less  active  state  until,  during  the 
Napoleonic  wars,  they  died  a  natural  death. 

The  machinery  for  regulating,  or  for  preventing,  the  exportation  was 
more  or  less  elaborate.  Certain  towns,  like  Winchelsea  and  Sandwich 
among  the  Ports,  were  set  apart  for  the  sale  of  wool  licensed  for  foreign 
sale ;  or  again,  licences,  on  payment  of  a  heavy  duty,  were  indiscrimi- 
nately granted.  Calais,  which  for  so  many  years  was  a  British  possession, 
was  a  fruitful  source  of  leakage,  in  spite  of  laws  that,  many  of  them,  were 
of  a  rather  extraordinary  futility.  Thus  shearers  were  rigorously  bound 
only  to  shear  at  certain  times,  and  then  to  register  the  numbers  of  their 
fleeces.  In  1698  an  enactment,  which,  says  Cooper,  lasted  till  our  own 
day,  was  passed.  This  provided  that  no  man  of  Kent  or  Sussex  living 
within  fifteen  miles  of  the  sea  "  should  buy  any  wool  unless  he  entered 
into  a  bond  with  sureties  that  all  he  should  buy  should  not  be  sold  by 
him  to  any  persons  within  fifteen  miles  of  the  sea ;  and  growers  of  wool 
within  ten  miles  of  the  sea  in  those  counties  were  obliged  to  account  for 
the  number  of  their  fleeces  and  where  lodged."  ^ 

As  was  only  to  be  imagined,  because  of  the  heavy  duties  and  in 
spite  of  the  death  penalties,  the  organisations  for  the  export  of  fleeces 
were  vastly  more  efficient  than  those  of  the  Government.  That  this 
was  the  case  in  early  days,  one  may  learn  irom  the  frequency  of  the 
occurrences  of  trials  of  offenders  in  the  time  of  Richard  II.  And  all 
through  the  many  succeeding  reigns,  until  that  of  George  III.,  com- 
plaints of  wool-merchants  and  schemes  for  the  better  enforcement  of  the 
regulations  are  incessant.  But  the  practice  of  "owling"  and  the  profits 
were  too  considerable  to  admit  of  its  being  put  down.  The  most  re- 
spectable of  the  county  authorities  were  leagued  with  the  owlers.  The 
lower  people,  according  to  the  author  of  the  pamphlet  called  '  England's 

1  Article  on  "  Smuggling  in  Sussex,"  Suss.  Arch.  Coll.,  vol.  x.,  by  W.  Durrant  Cooper. 


148  THE   CINQUE   PORTS. 

Interest  asserted,'  readily  risked  their  necks  for  12A.  a-day.  In  1660  it 
was  stated  that  "from  Romney  Marsh  the  greatest  part  of  the  rough 
wool  was  exported  to  France,  being  put  on  board  French  shallops  by 
night,  with  ten  to  twenty  men  well  armed  to  guard  it;  whilst  in  some 
other  parts  of  Sussex,  Hants,  and  Essex  the  same  methods  were  used, 
but  not  so  conveniently."  The  prowess  of  the  Marsh  gangs  is  vouched 
for  by  Mr  Carter,  a  seventeenth-century  revenue  officer,  who  declared 
that  those  worthies  had  within  the  two  years  1670  and  1671  conveyed  to 
Calais  "  forty  thousand  packs  of  wool."  The  sheriffs  and  under-sheriffs 
of  the  counties  are  stated  to  have  nearly  always  been  in  the  pay  of  the 
owlers,  and  the  magistrates  themselves  were  either  loth  or  afraid  to 
punish  what  offenders  were  brought  before  them. 

The  state  of  things  in  the  Marsh  is  charmingly  exemplified  by  the 
experiences  of  the  aforementioned  Mr  Carter :  "  Having  procured  the 
necessary  warrants,  he  repaired  to  Romney,  where  he  seized  eight  or 
ten  men  who  were  carrying  the  wool  on  their  horses'  backs  to  be 
shipped,  and  desired  the  Mayor  of  Romney  to  commit  them."  The 
Mayor — wishing,  no  doubt,  to  lead  a  peaceful  life  among  his  neighbours 
— admitted  them  to  bail.  Carter  and  his  men  retired  to  Lydd,  but  that 
town  was  made  too  hot  to  hold  them  —  they  were  attacked  at  night. 
"Adopting  the  advice  of  the  Mayor's  son,  they  next  day,  December  13, 
came  towards  Rye.  They  were  pursued  by  some  fifty  armed  men  till 
they  got  to  Camber  Point ;  so  fast  were  they  followed  that  they  could 
not  get  their  horses  over  Guildford  ferry ;  but,  luckily,  some  ships'  boats 
gave  them  assistance,  so  that  the  riders  got  safe  in  to  the  town,  which 
had  been  put  into  much  fear :  and  had  they  not  got  into  the  boats,  Mr 
Carter  would  have  received  some  hurt,  for  many  of  the  exporters  were 
desperate  fellows,  not  caring  what  mischief  they  did."^ 

This  sort  of  thing  went  on  quite  in  defiance  of  the  preventive 
officers.      The   number   of  these   latter   is  put,  in  a  report  of  1703,^  at 

'  An  Abstract  of  the  Proceedings  of  W.  Carter,  1694.        2  Letter  from  Henry  Baker,  Egerton  MS. 


ROMNEY  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  149 

fifty  officers,  who  each  received  ^^60  per  annum,  and  who  each  had  a 
servant  and  a  horse,  estimated  to  cost  ;^30  per  annum,  to  assist  them 
on  night  duty.  To  these  in  that  year  were  added  the  whole  force 
of  dragoons  then  stationed  in  Kent.  They  were  made  to  do  duty 
throughout  the  Marsh — "that  is,  from  Folkestone  inclusive  to  East 
Guldeford "  —  and  were  supplemented  by  a  number  of  cruisers.  But 
this  addition  to  the  preventive  forces  had  no  effect.  The  dragoons 
were  found  even  more  susceptible  of  bribery  than  the  sheriffs  and 
under-sheriffs.  The  owlers,  in  fact,  had  it  pretty  much  their  own 
way,  thus  worthily,  or  unworthily,  upholding  their  self -granted  privi- 
leges, as  their  ancestors  of  the  Five  Ports  had  done  in  the  days  of 
their  fathers. 

Of  other  more  or  less  historic  gossip  of  interest  there  is  plenty 
to  be  had  in  the  district.  Thus  one  may  read  that  the  manor  of 
Bilsington  was  held  of  the  king  by  the  family  of  Staplegate  for  the 
service  of  stewardship  at  the  coronation ;  that  King  Edward  seized 
the  lands  of  the  manor,  the  possessor  being  a  minor,  "  and  committed 
the  custody  of  the  ward's  body  to  one  Jefferay  Chawsier,  to  whom  he 
paid  ^104  for  the  same."  The  information  is  preserved  for  us  in  the 
records  of  a  suit  between  the  family  of  Staplegate  and  of  John  of 
Gaunt,  which  latter  laid  claim  to  Staplegate's  post  of  seneschal  in 
virtue  of  his  earldom  of  Leicester.  Another  man  of  world  -  wide  fame 
was  more  intimately  connected  with  one  of  the  hill  parishes  of  the  dis- 
trict—  Desiderius  Erasmus,  who  for  me  represents  all  that  was  gravest, 
sweetest,  and  best,  and  nothing  that  was  evil,  of  the  great  movement 
called  the  Reformation.  According  to  Froude,  Erasmus,  on  receiving 
Henry  VIII.'s  invitation  to  settle  in  England,  replied  that  he  could 
scarcely  do  so  without  some  provision  being  made  for  his  temporal 
needs.  Henry  referred  him  to  Archbishop  Warham,  who  at  that 
time    resided    in    the    archiepiscopal    dwelling    at    Aldington.       Warham 


I50  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

made  Erasmus  rector  of  the  place,  and  for  six  months,  at  least, 
that  great  man  resided  within  the  bounds  of  his  cure.  Possibly  he 
found  his  new  parishioners  intractable,  more  probably  he  found  work 
to  do  in  other  places;  at  any  rate,  at  the  end  of  that  time  he  left 
the  parish  to  the  care  of  a  curate  in  charge. 

It  is  not  impossible  that  the  clergyman  of  Aldington  —  Master 
Richard  Masters,  who  suffered  for  his  share  in  the  affairs  of  the  Fair 
Maid  of  Kent  —  was  Erasmus's  locum  tenens.  The  history  of  that 
affair  is  not  unentertaining,  enshrining  as  it  does  the  last  spasmodic 
attempt  of  the  old  faith  to  regain  its  hold  in  these  parts. 

Lambarde,  a  virulently  sturdy  Protestant,  gives  a  vivid  account 
of  the  affair,  from  which  I  extract  as  much  as  I  have  space  for.  He 
got  his  version  partly  from  the  accounts  of  the  local  eyewitnesses, 
partly  from  a  pamphlet  which  "  it  chanced  me  to  see,  conteining  four- 
and -twenty  leaves  penned  by  Edward  Thwaytes  or  I  wot  not  what 
doltish  dreamer."  "  About  the  time  of  Easter,"  says  he,  "  in  the 
seventeenth  yeer  of  the  reign  of  King  Henry  the  eight,  it  hapned  a 
certain  maiden  named  Elizabeth  Barton  (then  servant  to  one  Thomas 
Kob,  of  the  parish  of  Aldington)  to  be  touched  with  a  great  infirmity 
of  her  body,  which  did  ascend  at  divers  times  up  into  her  throat 
and  swelled  greatly  :  during  the  time  whereof  she  seemed  to  be  in 
grievous  pain  .  .  .  untill  the  disease  descended  and  fell  down  into 
the  body  again." 

Whilst  in  one  of  these  fits  she  accurately  foretold  the  death  of 
her  master's  child,  which  "divination  and  foretelling  was  the  first 
matter  that  moved  her  hearers  to  admiration."  Afterwards  she  lay 
long  in  trances,  on  recovering  from  which  she  narrated  not  only  what 
had  happened  at  a  distance  on  this  earth,  but  what  was  occurring  in 
heaven,  hell,  and  purgatory.  A  litde  later  she  began  to  declare  that 
whilst  in  these  trances  her  soul  had  sojourned  in  heaven,  where  she 
had    had    the    company  of   "  Our    Ladye    of  Court    at    Strete,   who   had 


ROMNEY  AND  ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD.  151 

commanded  her  to  offer  unto  her  a  Taper  in  her  Chappell  there, 
and  to  declare  boldly  to  all  Christian  people  that  our  Lady  of  Court 
at  Strete  had  revived  her  from  the  very  point  of  death ;  and  that 
her  pleasure  was  that  it  should  be  rung  for  a  miracle.  Which  words, 
when  her  master  heard,  he  said  that  there  were  no  bells  at  that 
Chappell,  whereunto  the  Maid  answered  nothing ;  but  the  voice  that 
spake  in  her  proceeded  :  '  Our  blessed  Lady  will  show  mo  miracles 
there :  for,  if  any  depart  this  life  sodainly,  or  by  mischance  in  deadly 
sin,  if  he  be  vowed  to  Our  Lady  hartily,  he  shall  be  restored  to  life 
again,  to  receive  shrift  and  housell,  and  after  to  depart  this  world  with 
God's  blessing.' " 

Her  fame  reached  the  ears  of  Archbishop  Warham,  who  directed 
certain  commissioners  to  inquire  into  the  matter.  "So  that  at  her 
next  voyage  to  Our  Lady  of  Court  at  Strete  she  entred  the  Chappell 
with  Ave  Regina  Ccelorum.  in  pricksong,  accompanied  with  these  Com- 
missioners, many  Ladies,  Gentlemen  and  Gentlewomen  of  the  best 
degree,  and  three  thousand  persons  besides  of  the  common  sort  of 
people  in  the  Countrie." 

Hereupon  followed  the  speedy  popularity  of  the  little  chapel,  in 
which  "  Our  Lady  ceased  not  to  shew  herself  mighty  in  operation, 
lighting  candles  without  fire,  moistning  women's  breasts  that  before  were 
drie  and  wanted  milk,  restoring  all  sorts  of  sick  to  perfect  health, 
reducing  the  dead  to  life  again,  and  finally  doing  all  good  to  all 
such  as  were  measured  and  vowed  to  her  at  Court  at  Strete!' 

Elizabeth    Barton    herself  was    safely    bestowed    in    the    Convent   of 

« 

St  Sepulchre's  at  Canterbury.  "And  thus,"  continues  Lambarde,  after 
a  passage  of  rather  unquotable  objurgation,  "the  matter  stood  sundrie 
years  together  —  the  Bishops,  Priests  and  Monks,  in  the  meantime, 
with  closed  eyes  winking;  and  the  Devill  and  his  lymmes,  with  open 
mouth  laughing  at  it,  untill  at  length  the  question  was  moved  about 
King  Henries  marriage,  at  which  time  this  holy  Maiden  (not  conteining 


152  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

herself  within  her  former  bounds  of  hypocrisie)  stepped  into  this  matter 
also  and  feined  that  she  understood  by  revelation  that  if  the  King 
proceeded  to  the  divorce  of  Queen  Catherine,  he  should  not  be  King 
of  this  realm  one  moneth." 

This  prophecy  was  a  double-edged  sword  for  poor  Elizabeth  Barton 
and  her  upholders,  besides  being  lamentably  deficient  in  ultimate  verifi- 
cation. As  an  immediate  result,  she  herself,  several  priests,  the  Warden 
of  the  Observant  Friars  in  Canterbury,  the  Bishop  of  Rochester,  and 
a  number  of  the  local  gentlemen  were  attainted  either  of  high  treason 
or  of  misprision  of  the  same.  A  large  number  of  them  were  duly  burnt 
at  Canterbury  on  the  site  of  the  memorial  lately  raised  to  the  martyrs 
of  the  other  side. 

"If  these  companions,"  finishes  the  wise  Lambarde,  "could  have 
let  the  King  of  the  land  alone,  they  might  have  plaied  their  pageants 
as  freely  as  others  have  been  permitted,  howsoever,  it  tended  to  the 
dishonour  of  the  King  of  Heaven.  But  An  nescis  longas  esse  Regibus 
ntanus." 

In  Napoleonic  times  the  Canal,  which  runs  from  the  town  of  Rye 
all  round  the  inner  edge  of  the  Marsh  as  far  as  the  foot  of  the  hill 
on  which  stands  Shorncliffe  Camp,  was  constructed  under  the  auspices 
of  the  great  Duke  of  Wellington.  Its  purpose  was  at  one  and  the 
same  time  defensive  and  communicative.  The  earth  thrown  up  in 
its  excavation  formed  an  earthwork  line  of  defence,  and  its  waters 
were  intended  as  a  means  of  barge- transit  for  troops  and  munition  of 
war.  It  has  hitherto  proved  of  no  warlike  use,  though  the  land  along 
its  banks  is  still  held  of  the  War  Department.  At  least  I  was  so 
informed  by  one  of  the  tenants,  who  added  that  they  might  be  dis- 
possessed at  a  day's  notice  by  the  Department.  Whether  or  no  it 
would  present  any  serious  obstacle  to  an  invading  force  I  can  scarcely 
say.      But  although  the  Vauban  system  of  its  construction  may  by  now 


ROMNEY  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  153 

be  obsolete,  I  should  imagine  that  to  an  enemy  who  had  captured 
Fort  Moncrief,  and  was  advancing  through  the  devious  roads  of  the 
Marsh,  it  might  yet  be  formidable.  Its  earthworks  are  still  complete, 
and,  they  taken,  would  still  be  covered  by  the  slopes  of  the  dominating 
hills.  Even  if  it  have  no  military  uses,  it  is  of  service  in  the  draining 
of  the  Marsh,  and  is  a  pleasant  addition  to  the  scenery.  To  that 
extent,  at  least,  the  sweat  of  the  men  who  digged  it  was  not  shed  in 
vain.  Would  that  as  much  could  be  said  for  all  other  herculean 
labours. 


Lydd. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE    LIBERTIES   OF   THE   PORT   AND   MARSH    OF   ROMNEY. 

Says  Nennius  :  "  The  first  marvel  [of  Britain]  is  the  Lumonoy  Marsh, 
for  in  it  are  sixty  islands  with  men  living  on  them.  It  is  girt  by  sixty 
rocks,  and  in  every  rock  is  an  eagle's- nest.  And  sixty  rivers  flow  into 
it,  and  yet  there  goes  out  into  the  Sea  but  one  river,  which  is  called  the 
Limen."  ^  Unless,  however,  the  Marsh  be  inconceivably  changed  since 
the  days  of  the  Abbot  of  Bangor,  this  early  account  of  its  wonders  is 
fallacious  —  overdrawn,  at  least;  for  to-day  one  can  discover  neither 
any  islands,  nor  any  rocks,  nor  any  rivers,  nor  yet  the  nests  of  any 
bird  so  fierce  as  an  eagle. 

The   writer   of  the   passage   has,   moreover,   hardly  caught   the   spirit 
of    the    Marsh    itself     One  may  —  one    should  —  exaggerate    in    speaking 

'  "  Primum  niiraculum  est  stagnum  Lumonoy,  sexagint.i  in  co,  ct  non  vadit  ex  co  ad  mare  nisi 

in    CO    sunt    insulre    sexaginta,    et    ibi    habitant  unum  flumcn, quod  vocatur  Limcn."— Hist.  Briton., 

homines,  et  sexaginta  rupilius  ainbitur  et  nidus  §  67. 
aquila;  unaquaque  in  rupe  est,  et  flumina  fluunt 


i 


LIBERTIES   OF  THE  PORT  AND  MARSH  OF  ROMNEY.       155 

of  it,  but  one  should  be  careful  to  avoid  the  citing  of  numbers  ;  for 
the  marvels  of  the  Marsh  are  innumerable.  It  imposes,  overawes,  repels 
— will  not  allow  one  to  lessen  its  impression  by  counting  and  by  set- 
ting down  figures.  One  learns  at  least  from  the  passage  that  the  Marsh 
even  then  made  an  impression  of  vastness  only  to  be  conveyed  to  a 
reader  by  means  of  wholesale  lying.  As  then,  so  now ;  but  one  iS 
wiser  in  one's  generation  than  to  tie  oneself  to  mere  "sixties."  The 
originator  of  the  later  saying  was  wiser  —  more  of  an  artist  —  when 
he  evolved  the  incontrovertible :  "  These  be  the  five  quarters  of  the 
world,  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  America,  and  the  Romney  Marsh."  That, 
at  least,  whilst  saying  less,  means  infinitely  more  than  the  islands  and 
rocks  and  rivers  of  the  early  writer.  It  has,  too,  the  stamp  of  truth. 
One  has  only  to  stand  on  a  Marsh  road — near  Brookland,  let  us  say- 
only  to  stand  there  and  see  the  level  earth  close  all  round  one  in  a 
circle  to  realise  that  one  is  alone  in  an  immense  world-quarter.  Once 
one  holds  oneself  aloof,  looks  at  a  stupid  map,  reads  the  foolish,  untrue 
acre-measurements  of  surveys,  one  loses  the  sense  of  magic.  But  one 
does  not  do  these  things.  Personally  I  have  no  need  of  a  map  to 
find  my  way  about  in  it,  and  I  have  never  paid  attention  to  any 
statement  of  the  Marsh's  acreage.  It  would  be  like  reading  a  statistical 
account  of  one's  lady-love. 

It  is  dangerous  even  to  stand  on  a  height  and  look  down  on  the 
Marsh.  One  sees  a  great  expanse  of  flat  land — a  great  expanse  but  no 
continent.  One  sees  the  whole — nothing  remains  for  exaggeration,  one 
realises  the  finity  of  even  the  Marsh.  One  views  it  most  clearly  from 
the  height  called  Aldington  Knoll;  but,  if  from  a  height  one  must  see 
it,  it  is  better  to  go  farther  inland,  to  climb  the  next  step  of  the  hills 
beyond  the  valley  of  the  Stour.  Standing  on  the  Farthing,  on  the 
road  that  the  Romans  made,  that  we  call  Stone  Street,  one  sees  below 
one's  feet  a  green  wave  of  land  swelling  up  to  Lympne  Hill.  Beyond 
that  very  silent,  very  narrow  ;    purple,  with   the   silver  string  of  the  sea 


156  THE    CINQUE  PORTS. 

at  its  verge,  lies  the  Marsh.  It  does  not  cry  aloud  for  notice,  does  not 
break  in  upon  the  petty  valley's  charms,  claims  no  worship,  sure  of  its 
receipt.  Those  who  have  never  seen  it,  it  certainly  allures ;  those  who 
know  it,  who  have  once  set  foot  in  it,  it  holds  for  ever.  One  goes  away 
from  it,  tires  of  it  as  one  tires  of  an  old  love — but  it  holds  one,  and  one 
returns,  one  returns. 

"  '  Go ;  I  give  you  time  to  make  holiday;  travel,  travel,  fare  into  far  countries, 
But  you  shall  come  back  at  last  to  the  old  places, 
And  here  where  I  have  always  dwelt,  you  shall  find  me,' 
Says  the  Old  Faith  we  are  leaving." 

Romney,  the  town  from  which  the  Marsh  takes  its  name — or  which 
takes  its  name  from  the  Marsh — is  nowadays  a  sleepy  country-place.  Of 
former  grandeur,  if  any  such  it  had,  no  trace  now  remains  in  the  town 
itself.  It  consists  of  one  long  street  distinguished  by  no  buildings  of 
note,  but  instinct  with  the  charm  that  softness  of  outline  lends  to  so 
many  English  market-towns.  I  think  the  grass  does  not  grow  in  its 
streets — not  at  least  with  any  profusion.  What  charm  the  place  has 
— and  it  is  a  not  inconsiderable  one — comes  from  the  capriciously  varying 
width  of  its  main  street.  One  enters  the  town  from  the  east  in  the 
shadow  of  a  few  trees  and  of  a  tall  mill.  There  the  road  is  broad 
enough.  But  it  suddenly  narrows,  then  opens  out  again,  and  runs 
straight  and  sleepy  between  lines  of  low  houses  until,  suddenly  once 
more,  it  narrows  to  almost  nothing  and  wriggles  out  into  the  open 
between  quite  tiny  buildings. 

The  old  town  hall,  an  undistinguished -looking  eighteenth -century 
cottage,  stands  nearly  in  the  middle  of  the  street.  Inasmuch  as  one  is 
sternly  disallowed  to  inspect  its  interior,  I  cannot  say  what  objects  of  art 
it  may  contain.  Its  windows  are  formidably  barred,  and  its  general 
aspect  is  one  of  grim  and  ugly  prison-housedom.  The  present  municipal 
buildings  which   adjoin   it  on   the   west  are  quite  as   ugly,  without  being 


LIBERTIES   OF  THE  PORT  AND  MARSH  OF  ROMNEY.       157 

relieved  by  anything  so  cheering  as  a  flavour  of  grimness.  On  the  front 
of  the  old  house  may  be  observed  a  plaster  imitation  of  the  seal  of  the 
mayors  of  the  town. 

The  New  Inn,  on  the  west  of  the  Guildhall,  although  quite  un- 
noticeable  externally,  contains  one  or  two  objects  of  interest.  It  is  a 
large  Georgian  building,  containing  a  great  number  of  rooms  and  two 
or  three  rambling  staircases.  It  must  at  one  time  have  been  of  vast 
importance  :  for  on  the  west  it  partook  of  righteousness,  abouched  on 
magistrates  and  session-holders  ;  on  the  east  it  laid  itself  out  for  the 
service  of  the  more  potent  smugglers.  For  the  asking,  one  may  be 
shown  hidden  rooms  approached  by  passages  of  embarrassing  narrow- 
ness—  rooms  that  must  certainly  have  been  filled  by  "free-traders"  in 
congress.  The  proximity  to  the  Court- House  is  suggestive  enough. 
One  understands  why  the  Mayor  of  Romney  bailed  the  owlers  that 
Mr  Carter  had  taken  in  flagrante  delicto  when  one  sees  that  the  owlers' 
council  met  within  hand-grasp  of  the  goodly  mayor  himself.  Personally, 
I  have  never  been  able  to  understand  why  the  smugglers  took  the  trouble 
to  hide  themselves  in  small  rooms,  behind  narrow  passages.  They  had 
matters  so  very  much  in  their  own  hands  that  they  might,  with  eminent 
safety  and  far  greater  comfort,  have  met  in  the  market-place.  Perhaps 
they  knew  that  the  picturesqueness  of  such  an  environment  added  to  the 
glamour  of  their  trade,  knew  that  the  mayor  in  his  court-room  was  the 
more  likely  to  tremble  at  the  thought  of  the  villainous-looking  men  in 
their  small  windowless  room  sitting  with  cocked  pistols  in  the  light  of 
a  flickering  smoky  candle.  That  the  profits  of  the  trade  were  great 
one  may  see  by  entering  another  room  to  the  west  of  the  inn.  Here 
one  has  fine  panelling,  loftiness,  simplicity  of  decoration  that  no  room 
of  the  period  can  much  better  show.  Here  the  worthy  smugglers,  di- 
vesting themselves  of  the  panoply  of  their  trades,  sat  and  smoked  as 
the  worshipfuls  of  the  place  —  perhaps  arranged  the  bailings  that  they 
themselves   were   to   grant    themselves  ;    that    they   themselves    were   to 


iS8  THE    CINQUE  PORTS. 

forfeit  to  themselves.  The  room  contains  one  architectural  feature 
that,  if  not  unique,  is  at  least  eminently  pleasing. 

I  refer  to  the  large,  glass-doored  corner-cupboard.  If  the  requisites 
of  decorative  art  be  simplicity,  charm  of  proportion,  and  harmony  with 
the  room  in  which  the  object  is  to  stand,  surely  this  cupboard  is  as 
good  an  expression  of  decorative  art  as  one  could  wish  for.  One  has 
to  imagine  it  closed,  with  the  glasses  arranged  round  the  semicircular 
shelves,  the  decanters  standing  on  the  central  projections,  gleaming 
veiled  through  the  glazed  door.  One  sees  then  a  little  classical  temple 
of  Bacchus.  One  may  add  a  fair  priestess — some  heroine  stooping  to 
conquer  —  and  in  the  large,  light,  panelled  room,  one  knows  that  one 
stands  where  those  others  stood — im  alien  schonen  Zeit. 

One  should  pay  the  designer  of  the  cupboard  this  little  compliment, 
if  only  because  he  did  good  work  and  is  forgotten.  Perhaps  his  ghost 
lingers  in  the  room  and  will  be  pleased  to  see  one  pay  a  sentimental 
tribute  to  his  art.  The  cupboard  is  not  uncommon  in  kind,  but  I  have 
never  seen  another  so  well  proportioned,  so  carefully  thought  out.  Mr 
Basil  Champneys  in  its  connection  mentions  another  elsewhere  in  Kent 
— another  more  elaborate,  picked  out  in  red  and  gold,  whilst,  "in  the 
semi-dome  at  the  top  is  a  painting  of  Neptune  driving  his  team  of  sea- 
horses. The  inner  side  of  the  (unglazed)  door  and  the  plain  surfaces 
of  the  cupboard  are  marbled  in  a  very  conventional  manner."  So  that, 
on  the  whole,  the  Romney  cupboard  seems  preferable. 

Of  greater  architecture  there  is  only  one  specimen  in  the  town,  but 
that — the  tower  of  the  Church  of  Saint  Nicholas — a  very  fine  one.  It 
has  the  massive  dignity  of  most  Romanesque  work  together  with  an 
emotional  tenderness  that  is  generally  lacking  from  Norman  work  in 
England.  It  was  badly  restored  at  the  beginning  of  the  century — re- 
stored so  badly  that  even  the  historian  Ireland  was  moved  to  indig- 
nation. "Even  the  tower,"  says  he,  "that  from  its  great  height  was 
less  exposed  to  such  vile  attempts  at  improvement,  has  suffered  numerous 


LIBERTIES   OF   THE  PORT  AND  MARSH  OF  ROMNEV.       159 

mutilations,  many  of  the  arches  having  been  filled  up  and  an  entirely 
new  character  given  to  the  style  of  the  building  by  the  introduction  of 
some  grotesque  fancies  at  the  summit,  which  no  longer  boasts  a  stone  of 
the  original  fabric."  One  wonders  what  Ireland  would  have  said  could 
he  have  seen  the  modern  pulpit.  The  tower  must  have  been  at  one  time 
very  lofty,  for  the  earth  has  raised  its  level  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
old  bases  of  the  western  pillars  are  hidden  at  a  depth  of  some  feet. 

The  interior  of  the  church  is  not  particularly  inspiring.  The  chancel 
is  Norman  and  fine  in  its  way,  but  the  aisles  and  choir  with  which  it  is 
surrounded  are  singularly  ugly  fourteenth-century  work,  which  is  joined 
on  to  the  Norman  west  end  in  an  ingeniously  clumsy  manner. 

We  may  possibly  date  these  additions  from  the  time  when  the  storm 
swept  away  the  other  three  churches  of  the  place — those  of  St  Laurence, 
St  John  the  Baptist,  and  the  Spital.  On  the  other  hand,  the  growing 
popularity  of  the  "  Romney  Play,"  which  attained  to  a  local  popularity 
almost  as  great  as  that  of  Ober  Ammergau  to-day,  may  have  called  for 
an  enlarging  of  the  church  in  which  it  was  held. 

The  Romney  players  were  famous  far  and  near.  People  came  from 
great  distances  to  hear  them,  and  they  were  hired  by  neighbouring  towns. 
The  strong  bias  towards  Protestantism  that  the  whole  of  the  district  ex- 
hibited has  by  some  writers  been  traced  to  the  influence  of  these  enter- 
tainments. They  certainly  did  spread  a  knowledge  of  the  Bible  amongst 
the  otherwise  totally  ignorant  population,  and  possibly  may  have  made 
them  inclined  to  ask  for  more.  Whether  the  cause  was  advanced  by 
the  Festival  of  the  Boy  Bishop,  which  was  celebrated  in  the  church 
each  St  Nicholas's  day,  I  should  hardly  care  to  say  ;  but  one  feels 
certain  that  the  moral  tone  of  Rye  can  hardly  have  been  raised  after 
the  corporation  had  "paid  in  expenses  atte  William  Garrarde's  when 
the  Lord  of  Misrule  at  New  Romney  came  to  towne  xW." 

Romney  town  has  two  appendages — Old  Romney  and  Littlestone- 
on-Sea.     The  former,  a  mere  hamlet,  lies  a  short  distance  to  the  north-east 


i6o  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

of  Romney  itself.  It  is  customary  to  call  Romney  "  New,"  a  name  which 
it  gained  in  the  thirteenth  or  fourteenth  century.  The  commonly  accepted 
story  is  that  Old  Romney  was  the  original  town,  from  which  the  inhabi- 
tants migrated  to  the  new  town  after  some  unspecified  catastrophe.  But 
there  is  no  ground  for  this  theory.  Old  Romney  bears  the  same  relation 
to  New  that  West  Hythe  bears  to  Hythe.  Indeed  Old  Romney  appears 
never  to  have  been  a  place  of  any  consideration.  Its  church  is  a  quite 
small,  late  Gothic  building,  possessing  no  points  of  interest  save  that  a 
small  portion  of  the  east  wall  presents  the  appearance  of  Anglo-Saxon 
work.  It  may  possibly  have  been  the  church  of  the  old  Ville  of  St 
Martin's  —  the  congregation  of  fishermen's  huts  that  was  granted  to 
Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  in  the  eighth  century.  Otherwise  there 
are  no  traces  of  buildings  older  than  the  two  or  three  farmhouses  that 
shelter  round  the  church. 

Littlestone-on-Sea  lies  at  the  end  of  a  straight  road  from  Romney 
to  the  sea  —  a  more  than  normally  ugly  place.  The  best  time  to 
visit  it  is  in  the  winter,  when  the  gaunt  grey  houses  confront  a  gaunt 
grey  sea,  and  solitude  takes  a  grotesque  charm  of  its  own.  In  the 
summer  Littlestone  is  merely  a  more  or  less  successful  speculation,  in 
the  winter  it  is  a  moral  lesson.^  One  wanders  past  stucco  houses — 
mansions,  one  might  call  them ;  one  sees  rows  and  rows  of  empty 
windows  through  which  white  gas-globes  glimmer  in  the  ghostly  rooms. 
I  was  walking  one  winter's  day  on  the  beach  and  fell  into  conversation 
with  a  woman  who  was  forlornly  picking  up  driftwood  in  the  face 
of  the  immense  ocean.  One  felt  filled  with  pity — pity  for  the  unhappy 
houses,  for  the  black  speck  of  a  woman,  for  the  sea  that  had  them 
in  face,  for  the  hurrying  clouds  that  had  them  to  cover.  The  woman 
said  that  she  had  charge  of  a  lunatic  who  lived  in  one  of  the  mansions, 
that  she  had  had  charge  of  several  lunatics  in  the  same  neighbourhood. 
It   struck   me   then   that   nothing   earthly  could   be   more   desolate   than 

'  It  is  redeemed,  however,  by  a  golf  course,  which  really  is  "  one  of  the  best  in  the  country." 


W 

O 

I 

I 
O 


in 

UJ 

z 

LlI 

o 
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=) 
Q 


LIBERTIES   OF   THE  PORT  AND  MARSH  OF  ROMNEY.       i6 


lOl 


the  destiny  of  this  woman — to  have  charge  fpr  ever  of  a  succession   of 
lunatics  in  that  deserted  place. 

If  one  be  bold  enough  to  adventure  the  crossing  of  a  little  water  one 
may  reach  Dungeness  by  walking  along  the  sand  at  low  water,  if  not, 
one  may  reach  it  from  Romney  by  stumbling  over  several  miles  of  shingle. 
The  train  service  is  exceedingly  perfunctory.  Dungeness  itself  is  a  place 
far  more  desolate  than  even  Littlestone  —  but  desolate  in  a  different,  a 
pleasanter,  manner.  It  is  nothing  but  shingle,  nothing  but  shingle  to  the 
close  of  the  chapter.  Once  there,  one  is  at  the  end  of  the  world — at  the 
end  of  the  world's  Fifth  Quarter.  One  sees  no  land,  only  shingle  and  sea. 
The  lighthouse  reaches  up  into  the  clear  sky.  A  few  persons,  isolated 
figures,  glide  over  the  ridges ;  oneself,  one  staggers  and  plunges  dismally. 
One  is  at  the  end  of  the  world.  The  water  is  so  deep  that  great  ships 
glide  past  silently,  almost  within  the  reach  of  the  hand.  The  hard  land 
seems  an  anomaly  right  out  among  these  deep  waters ;  seems  to  have  no 
right  to  intrude  upon  the  ocean.  The  lighthouse  is  painted  harlequin-wise, 
so  that  a  great  part  of  its  grace  as  a  structure  is  lost.  From  its  top  one 
has  a  magnificent  view ;  one  sees  the  whole  of  the  Marsh,  stretching  from 
Folkestone  to  Fairlight,  whilst  over  the  tops  of  the  Lympne  range  peep 
the  heads  of  the  hills  that  run  from  Wye  to  Caesar's  Camp. 

The  lighthouse,  as  all  who  can  read  may  learn  from  a  tablet  inserted  in 
the  wall  of  one  of  its  rooms,  was  built  by  Thomas  Coke,  Esq.,  in  1792. 
Its  ostensible  object  —  according  to  the  tablet — was  "the  direction  and 
comfort  of  mariners,  the  benefit  and  security  of  commerce,  and  to  prove  a 
lasting  memorial  of  British  hospitality."  But  it  is  distressing  to  learn,  after 
due  perusal  of  these  lofty  sentiments,  that  Mr  Coke  received  a  comfortable 
income — Fussell  says  more  than  ^500  a-year — from  the  mariners  he  com- 
forted, every  passing  ship  paying  a  certain  sum  for  his  benefit.  At  the 
time  of  its  erection  it  stood  some  100  yards  from  the  sea;  its  distance  is 
now  considerably  greater.  The  earlier  house  of  which  it  took  the  place, 
and  which  had  been  erected  on  the  sea-beach,  was,  in   1792,  nearly  half  a 

L 


i62  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

mile  from  the  shore.  It  is  pleasant  to  think  that,  if  the  process  of  addition 
to  Dungeness  continues,  England  will  in  a  few  thousand  years  be  joined  to 
France  by  a  spit  of  shingle. 

Besides  the  lighthouse  there  is  at  Dungeness  Point  a  Lloyd's  station 
which,  on  a  busy  day,  adds  a  touch  of  colour  to  the  place  with  its  strings  of 
flags.    Walking  along  the  shingle  one  comes  upon  a  solitary  telegraph-station, 
almost  within  reach  of  the  waves.     It  is  used,  I  believe,  by  shipmasters, 
who  send  messages  ashore  by  boat.     Farther  along  one  will  find  a  cluster 
of  fishermen's  cottages  grouped  round  a  dismantled  fort.     The  little  village 
— Lambarde  calls  it  Nesh — is  perhaps  as  difficult  of  attainment  as  any  in 
the  kingdom.     The  fulls  of  shingle  make  walking  an  absolute  torture,  make 
one  envy  the  pilgrims  who  had  nothing  worse  than  parched  peas  underfoot. 
The  inhabitants,  however,  make  use  of  what  they  call  backstays,  an  instru- 
ment after  the  manner  of  a  snow-shoe,  and  on  these  they  glide  in  an  enviable 
manner.     The  village,    when  one  has  reached   it,  is  picturesque,  though, 
perhaps,    "suggestive"   is  the  better  word.      Its  black,   weather -boarded 
houses  have  no  better  foundation  than  the  shingle ;   not  a  herb  is  to  be 
seen.     According  to  Mr  Lucy,  however,  there  was  once  a  garden  in  the 
place.     Its  owner  had  carried  the  soil  for  it  from  Lydd  sack  by  sack  over 
the  terrible  road.      It  has  now,  I  think,  disappeared  ;   I,  at  least,  have  never 
seen  it.     A  few  hens  peck  the  ground  round  the  shanties,  though  what 
they  find  to  nourish  them  it  is  difficult  to  say.     There  is  not  even  soil 
enough  for  the  sea-poppy,  though  a  little  nearer  the  railway  a  miniature 
wood  makes  a  shift  to  cover  a  plot  of  ground  not  much  larger  than  a  suit 
of  clothes.     The  firewood  of  the  village  is  composed  of  stacks  of  wreck- 
wood  ;  indeed  the  whole  neighbourhood  has  an  air  of  having  been  washed 
from  the  depths  of  the  sea.     If  one  is  in  luck— still  more,  if  one  has  the 
gift  of  making  those  of  few  words  talk— one  may  hear  stirring  stories  of 
the  ships   that  come   ashore  on  stormy  nights ;    for   Dungeness    is   very 
terrible  to  those  that  fail  to  give  it  a  wide  enough  berth.     Moreover,  it  is 
no  unusual  thing  to  see  a  sad  piece  of  human  jetsam,  done  to  death  miles 


LIBERTIES   OF   THE  PORT  AND  MARSH  OF  ROMNEY.       163 

and  miles  away,  come  bobbing  along  the  currents  that  sweep  the  bay  near 
the  point.     One  of  the  most  tragic  stories  that  I  remember  to  have  heard 
was  connected  with  a  man  who  escaped  the  tender  mercies  of  the  ocean  to 
undergo  an  almost  more  merciless  buffeting  ashore.     He  was  one  of  the 
crew   of  a    German    merchant    that  was   wrecked    almost   at  the  foot    of 
the  lighthouse.     A  moderate  swimmer,  he  was  carried  by  the  current  to 
some  distance  from  the  scene  of  the  catastrophe.     Here  he  touched  the 
ground.       He  had  nothing,  no   clothes,    no  food ;   he   came  ashore  on   a 
winter's    night.       In    the    morning   he  found  himself  in   the   Marsh   near 
Romney.      He  knocked  at  doors,  tried  to  make  himself  understood.     The 
Marsh  people  thought  him  either  a  lunatic  or  a  supernatural  visitor.     To 
lonely  women  in  the  Marsh  cottages  he  seemed  a  fearful  object.     No  doubt 
he  was,  poor  wretch.     They  warned  their  menfolk  of  him,  and  whenever  he 
was  seen  he  was  hounded  away  and  ill-used.      He  got  the  name  of  Mad 
Jack.      Knowing  nothing  of  the  country,  nothing  of  the  language,  he  could 
neither  ask  his  way  nor  read  the  names  on  the  signposts,  and  even  if  he  read 
them,  they  meant  nothing  to  him.      How  long  this  lasted,  I  do  not  know ; 
I  remember  hearing  from  the  village  people  at  the  time  that  a  dangerous 
person  was  in  the  neighbourhood.     The  fear  of  the  cottage  folk  was  real 
enough.     For  a  fortnight  or  so  hardly  one  of  them  would  open  their  doors 
after  nightfall.     The  police  at  last  got  to  hear  of  him,  and,  after  a  search  of 
some  days,  he  was  found  asleep  in  a  pigsty.      He  had  the  remains  of  an 
old  shirt  hanging  round  his  neck ;  and  under  one  arm,  an  old  shoe  that  he 
seemed  to  use  as  a  larder ;  it  contained  two  old  crusts  and  the  raw  wing 
of  a  chicken.      In  all  the  time  of  his  wandering  he  had  not  come  more  than 
nine  miles  from  the  place  where  he  had  come  ashore. 

I  had  the  story  rather  curiously  confirmed — paralleled — the  other  day. 
A  man  knocked  at  my  door  and  asked  me  in  German  if  I  were  a  Jew.  I 
told  him  that  I  was  not,  without  much  affecting  his  belief  that  the  only 
German-speakers  in  the  kingdom  were  members  of  the  chosen  people.  He 
was  one  of  the  many  Germans   who  leave  their  country  to  escape  the 


1 64  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

military  service ;  had  taken  a  ticket  for  London  from  Cologne,  and  had 
persuaded  his  aged  mother  to  accompany  him  to  the  town  whose  streets 
are  paved  with  gold.  They  had  reached  Dover  in  safety,  and  were  in 
the  train  bound  for  London  when  a  German  in  the  same  compartment 
advised  them  not  to  go  to  London  ;  there  were  too  many  Germans  there 
alreadj?^,  too  many  thieves.  Jakob  Schmitz  decided  to  alight  at  the  next 
station.  At  Folkestone,  therefore,  he  attempted  to  explain  his  wishes  to 
the  porter  at  the  gate.  The  porter  called  the  guard  of  the  train,  who, 
seeing  that  Schmitz  had  a  London  ticket,  caught  him  by  the  arm  and 
bundled  him  and  his  mother  into  the  train  again,  locking  the  door  upon 
them.  Schmitz,  however,  determined  not  to  go  to  London,  descended  on 
to  the  six-footway  at  the  next  station — Sandling  Junction.  When  the 
train  moved  off  Schmitz  and  his  mother  were  discovered  and  conducted  to 
a  waiting-room  for  consignment  to  the  care  of  the  guard  of  the  next  train. 
This  Schmitz  and  his  mother  did  not  await.  They  seized  a  moment  when 
the  coast  was  clear  and  departed  into  the  wide  world.  They  had  to 
undergo  an  agony  as  acute,  though  fortunately  not  so  protracted,  as  that  of 
their  predecessor  in  misfortune.  The  mother  was  in  want  of  a  cup  of 
coffee,  but  whenever  Schmitz  knocked  at  a  cottage  door  he  was  roughl}' 
repelled.  The  folks  told  him  afterwards  that  they  had  taken  him  for  a 
ghost  or  a  murderer  or  a  pikey — as  we  call  the  gipsies. 

After  nine  hours'  wandering,  the  Schmitzes  reached  Hythe.  It  was 
then  eight  o'clock  of  a  January  night.  Here  Frau  Schmitz  fainted  in  the 
open  street — a  small  crowd  collected,  and  amongst  the  number  a  man  who 
had  passed  some  time  with  German  workmen  in  New  York.  He  con- 
ducted them  to  a  hotel  where  there  was  a  German  waiter,  and  their 
troubles  were  at  an  end.  But  for  the  fainting  of  the  mother,  however, 
they  might  have  fared  nearly  as  badly  as  the  other  did. 

Stories  as  cheerless  as  these  may  be  heard  in  plenty  among  the 
dwellers  at  Dungeness.  One  may  still  hear  that  of  the  wreck  of  the 
Northfleet,    which    is    too    well    known    to    need    retelling.       I    remember 


LIBERTIES    OF  THE  PORT  AND  MARSH  OF  ROMNEY.       165 

myself  being  at  the  lighthouse  one  New  Year's  day  and  seeing  the 
shore  lined  with  the  pathetic  bodies  of  little  puffins — though  whence 
they  came  I  cannot  say.  But,  in  spite  of  the  badness  of  the  roads 
and  the  dreariness  of  the  general  outlook,  the  inhabitants  seem  to  grow 
attached  to  the  place.  The  hostess  of  one  of  the  little  inns,  for 
instance,  was  obliged  to  take  up  her  present  quarters  because  her 
octogenarian  mother  refused  to  leave  the  Beach,  as  they  call  it.  The 
sight  of  a  green  field  and  a  hard  road  was  to  her  distasteful. 

Unless  one  has  superfluous  flesh  to  walk  off,  it  is  best  to  take  the 
train  to  Lydd.  The  going  between  the  two  places  is  excessively  bad, 
and  the  country  contains  nothing  that  may  not  be  seen  with  advantage 
from  the  carriage  windows.  The  tract  of  ground  between  Lydd  and 
the  lighthouse  is  famous  for  its  population  of  hares — one  may  see  them 
drop  leisurely  over  the  banks  as  the  train  passes  —  though  why  the 
hares  should  come  there  and  what  they  find  to  live  upon  is  somewhat 
of  a  mystery.  If,  as  seems  most  likely,  they  seek  solitude  they  certainly 
find  it. 

Lydd,  if  not  quite  the  town  at  the  end  of  the  world,  is  the  town 
next  it.  Its  entrance  is  rather  drearily  ugly ;  one  walks  along  a  cinder 
path  by  gasworks,  but  the  town  itself  is  one  of  those  that  seem  to 
deny  the  very  possibility  of  such  modern  improvements.  It  owes  much 
of  its  charm  to  the  fineness  of  its  trees,  that  tower  up  in  the  midst  of 
the  low  houses  and  give  one  the  pleasant  sensation  of  being  in  the  shadow 
of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land. 

Lydd  is  considerably  larger  than  its  head  port,  Romney.  Outside 
its  long  main  street  it  still  preserves  the  appearance  that  it  had  in 
Ireland's  time  —  the  appearance  of  being  made  up  of  a  congregation 
of  separate  farmhouses.  One  still  sees  numbers  of  hale  and  stout- 
looking  men  in  its  streets,  but  I  imagine  that  these  no  longer  support 
their  numerous  families  by  smuggling.  There  is,  alas !  hardly  anything 
worth  the  running  nowadays.     The  south   part  of  the   town   is  pleasant 


1 66  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

enough  with  its  open  spaces  fringed  with  small  cottages ;  its  appearance 
of  having  no  lack  of  breathing  space,  of  finding,  even  in  these  sad 
months  and  years,  no  necessity  to  crowd  its  houses  together.  Farther 
along,  to  the  west,  are  the  huts  of  the  camp — a  camp  whose  occupants 
are  chiefly  given  over  to  the  study  of  explosives  of  prodigious  force. 
In  the  chronicles  of  the  outside  world  one  may  read  of  the  effects  of 
Lyddite  shells,  and  so  even  yet  the  little  Port  town  may  find  its  name 
immortalised  by  those  who  make  history  by  the  slaughter  of  their  kind. 
Unless,  however,  one  cares,  and  is  able,  to  get  a  sight  of  the  town 
records,  there  is  not  much  to  interest  one  in  the  place.  The  church 
is  a  large  building,  of  which  the  body  was  erected  in  the  thirteenth 
century  and  was  subsequently  a  good  deal  pulled  about.  The  tower 
was  begun  in  1435-50  and  finished  by  Cardinal  Wolsey,  who  was,  among 
other  things,  vicar  of  Lydd.  The  stone  vaulting  of  its  inner  part  is 
decorated  with  elaborate  tracery  of  rather  irregular  design,  finished  off 
with  carefully  carved  heads  of  kings,  and  queens,  and  knaves,  and 
maids-in-waiting.  These  are  well  worth  study  to  those  who  are  inter- 
ested in  such  matters  as  fifteenth-century  headdress  and  physiognomy. 

Legend  says  that  the  towers  of  Lydd,  Ashford,  and  some  church 
on  the  opposite  shore,  whose  name  has  slipped  my  memory,  were  built 
at  the  same  time  and  by  the  same  architect.  The  workmen  engaged 
upon  Lydd  were  in  the  habit,  when  they  lacked  one  tool  or  another, 
of  calling  to  their  fellows  across  the  Marsh  or  the  sea  :  "  Kindly  throw 
me  such  and  such  tool,"  and  the  tool  was  duly  thrown. 

The  churchyard  is  quaint  enough.  On  the  south  side  it  runs  right 
up  under  the  very  windows  of  the  cottages  that  hem  it  in  ;  its  tomb- 
stones leaning  at  angles  in  the  lush  grass  do  their  best  to  make  one 
think  of  the  rude  ■  forefathers  of  Lydd.  One  may  read  of  disasters  at 
sea.  Quite  close  to  the  pathway  at  the  east  end  of  the  church  is  a 
memorial  of  a  lieutenant  in  the  navy  who  circumnavigated  the  world 
with    Captain    Cook   and   who   saw   him   die.      One    imagines    that    the 


LIBERTIES   OF   THE  PORT  AND  MARSH  OF  ROMNEY.       167 

denizen  of  the  tomb  must  have  been  Sir  Oracle  in  the  Lydd  of  his 
day,  for  was  he  not  also  present  at  the  glorious  battle  of  Camperdown  ? 
To  preserve  his  memory  some  local  laureate  has  had  engraved  on  his 
tombstone  a  paper  of  verses  of  the  sort  in  which  one  finds  "furl'd" 
rhymed  with  "world";  of  the  sort  that  makes  one  hope  that  the 
inhabitants  of  a  better  world  do  not  writhe  at  monumental  inscriptions. 
At  the  southern  foot  of  the  tower  are  the  graves  of  those  that  went 
down  in  the  Northfleet. 

The  Marsh  to  the  west  and  the  south-west  of  Lydd  is  at  its  most 
desolate ;  almost  soilless,  nearly  always  brown  and  parched.  A  little 
more  to  the  north  it  becomes  greener ;  dykes  and  water  and  close-cropped 
embankments  abound,  and  white-walled  farms  give  the  tract  a  savour 
of  Holland,  a  savour  that  is  lacking  to  the  rest  of  the  marshes.  This 
part — it  stretches  almost  up  to  the  walls  of  Rye — is  called  Walland  or 
Walling.  Returning  from  Rye  towards  Brookland,  one  sees  the  Marsh 
at  its  best.  Little  by  little,  as  one  follows  the  winding  roads,  the  high- 
lands sink  out  of  sight.  They  disappear  very  slowly ;  but,  suddenly, 
as  one  looks  back  from  a  turn  in  the  road  they  have  disappeared,  have 
vanished.  One  goes  on,  and  little  by  little  the  conviction  forces  itself 
upon  one  that  the  hills  were  a  hallucination,  that  they  do  not  exist, 
that  they  never  did  exist,  that  they  never  could  have  reached  up  towards 
heaven.  One  realises  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  world  but  flat,  rushy 
land.  A  little  nearer  the  sea,  one  has  seen  great  ships,  great  towers 
of  gleaming  canvas  rise  up  above  the  farm  roofs.  In  the  depths  of 
the  Marsh  one  does  not  even  see  that ;  nothing  rises,  nothing  aspires ; 
the  sky  presses  one  down.  One  is  so  low,  so  near  the  earth,  that  even 
a  small  thorn-bush  shuts  out  a  great  part  of  the  world.  One  sees  tiny 
cowering  houses,  stunted  thorn-trees,  sheep  that  never  raise  their  heads 
— an  infinite  number  of  sheep.  Sometimes  a  heron  stands  silently  in 
a  shallow  pool,  not  offering  itself  to  the  sight,  but  so  silent,  so  primeval 
in  its  motionlessness,  that  the  eye  must  search  for  it  a  long  time. 


1 68  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

Silence  is  the  characteristic  of  the  place,  a  brooding  silence,  an 
inconceivably  self-centred  abstraction.  Impossible  to  disturb  the  calm  to 
draw  attention  to  oneself.  One  counts  for  so  little.  Sometimes  the  reeds 
that  line  the  dykes  whisper  something — but  so  low  that  it  is  impossible 
to  catch  what  they  say,  to  understand  them.  The  roads  themselves  are 
wayward,  and  wind  about  in  an  anciently  arbitrary  manner,  suggestive 
of  the  tyrannies  of  the  old  time  before  us.  One  is  forced  to  follow 
them ;  no  modern,  hurrying,  democratic  suffrage  can  frighten  these  kings 
into  concessions.  There  are  footpaths,  it  is  true,  but  unless  one  knows 
them  well,  they  are  difficult  to  discover.  A  well-defined  path  will  lead 
one  into  a  field  :  it  breaks  up  into  divergent  tracks ;  one  chooses  one, 
and  finds  oneself  lost  in  a  great  island  of  a  field.  One  is  buffeted 
backwards  and  forwards  by  dykes  too  broad  to  jump,  and  in  the  end 
one  is  lucky  if  one  reach  the  hard  road  again.  On  a  dark  night — and 
the  nights  here  are  sometimes  incredibly  dark — the  finding  of  one's  way 
is  a  perilous  matter  ;  one  steps  without  the  smallest  warning  into  dykes 
quite  deep  enough  to  drown  one.  Even  skilful  drivers  have  been  known 
to  drive  off  the  turn  of  a  road,  horse  and  all,  into  the  water. 

On  a  moonlight  night,  however,  the  Marsh  has  a  charm  of  its  own. 
The  mists  rise  up  and  lie  perfectly  level  round  one.  There  is  not  a 
swirl,  not  a  single  isolated  wreath.  The  moon  drives  a  broadening 
path  along  the  silver  of  it,  and  one  seems  to  be  walking  neck  -  deep 
through  an  intangible  sea.  The  black  thorn  -  bushes  rise  out  of  it, 
like  sea-rocks,  gleaming  a  little  with  the  dew  in  their  branches. 

By  daylight,  as  one  walks  westward,  slowly  past  the  yellowing  rushes, 
little  by  little  the  tower  of  Lydd  church  rises  up  on  the  right  hand.  Seen 
from  a  distance,  it  has  the  slender  rigid  grace  of  the  towers  of  Verona. 
Soon  afterwards  one  rises  the  trees  that  hide  the  tower-foot,  then,  farther 
off,  the  casket-like  top  of  Romney  spire,  then  more  trees  round  it,  and 
presently  the  multitude  of  spires  and  towers  and  trees  that  dot  the  eastern 
surface  of  the  Marsh — the  surface  of  Romney  Marsh  proper.     One  reaches 


LIBERTIES   OF   THE  PORT  AND  MARSH  OF  ROMNEY.       169 

Brookland,  a  village  that  once  was  larger  than  it  is  to-day.  Its  church 
contains  a  curious  leaden  font  of  the  twelfth  century.  In  the  churchyard 
stands  the  octagonal  wooden  belfry,  a  rude  piece  of  tower-building  to 
which  an  injurious  prophecy  attaches.  It  says  that  when  a  bachelor  and 
a  maid  are  married  in  Brookland  the  tower  will  leap  into  position  on  the 
church.  The  records  of  marriages  not  being  entirely  absent  from  the 
Brookland  registers,  the  prophet  must  be  interpreted  as  casting  a  quite 
undeserved  slur  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the  neighbourhood. 

Most  of  the  churches  of  the  little  villages  about  here  enshrine  objects 
of  interest  to  such  as  be  of  goodwill ;  there  are,  for  instance,  the  very 
fine  stalls  at  Ivychurch.  But  they  are  mostly  things  rather  to  be  seen 
than  written  of  except  in  technical  language ;  one  shrinks  from  de- 
scriptions of  the  "  cusped  ogee  "  order.  The  churches  themselves  are  so 
large  as  to  be  quite  out  of  proportion  to  the  number  of  possible 
worshippers,  and  those  who  think  that  the  Marsh  was  never  thickly 
populated  account  for  this  spaciousness  by  advancing  the  theory  that 
the  edifices  in  question  were  rather  sacrificial  than  devotional — that  they 
were  built  ad  majorem  Dei  gloriam  out  of  the  funds  paid  by  the  tenants 
of  the  marshes  for  the  protection  of  their  lands.  Unfortunately  for  this 
theory,  most  of  the  churches  were  built  after  the  scot  of  the  lands  had 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  jurats  of  the  Level.  The  jurats  had  not 
the  power,  even  if  they  had  the  will,  to  expend  their  incomes  on 
sacrificial  building. 

To  reach  Appledore  one  runs  north-westerly  out  of  Brookland.  As 
one  approaches  the  canal  the  hills  begin  to  rise  up  before  one ;  Appledore 
itself  stands  on  a  clay  mound  just  across  the  water.  It  is  quiet  enough 
and  sleepy  enough  never  to  have  seen  the  landing  of  the  Danes  that  once 
destroyed  the  little  castle  hard  by.  The  village  boasts  a  Perpendicular 
church  of  no  great  interest  but  of  a  certain  quaintness.  The  camp, 
which  is  supposed  to  have  been  Caesar's  second,  lay  a  little  to  the 
north-east  of  the  village.     In  the  rectory  garden  an  immense  collection 


I70  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

of  Roman  potsherds  were  not  long  ago  discovered,  and  there,  at  least,  one 
is  certainly  standing  on  ground  that  once  the  Roman  sandal  pressed. 

The  Marsh  is  at  its  deepest  about  here,  more  particularly  at  the  north 
of  the  canal.  The  canal  itself  is,  as  I  have  said,  an  addition  to  the  charm 
of  the  Marsh.  It  is  the  atonement  of  the  power  that  ornamented  the 
shore  lines  with  inverted  flower-pots.  It  forms  an  always  pleasant  walk ; 
in  the  summer  one  has  the  shade  of  the  trees  in  leaf,  in  winter  the 
shelter  of  the  high  banks.  One  may  walk  for  miles  and  miles  on  the 
green  sward  of  the  embankments ;  on  the  one  hand  one  has  the  always 
tranquil  Marsh,  on  the  other  the  slopes  of  the  hills.  The  currentless 
water  draws  crowds  of  swallows,  of  midges.  It  is  nearly  always  still, 
never  does  more  than  ripple  gently  beneath  the  wildest  of  storms ;  is 
everywhere  studded  with  water-weeds.  It  has  all  the  charm  of  a  river 
with  the  added  glamour  of  stagnant  water.  They  make  a  feeble  pretence 
of  clearing  it  yearly.  Two  or  three  men  contract  to  do  the  work  of  each 
section.  They  walk  on  either  bank  drawing  between  them  a  stout  chain 
ornamented  with  scythe-blades ;  this  serves  to  thin  out  a  few  roots.  The 
others  grow  the  more  luxuriantly,  and  in  a  few  weeks  the  surface  of  the 
still  water  is  as  weed-dappled  as  ever.  Why  the  authorities  go  to  the 
trouble  of  attempting  the  clearance  one  does  not  know.  It  employs, 
at  least,  a  certain  amount  of  labour,  and  that  is  good  in  its  way. 

The  canal  has  none  of  the  stiffness  of  the  ordinary  artificial  water- 
way. The  exigencies  of  the  Vauban  system  cause  it  to  take  broad 
sweeps,  to  have  all  the  deviousness  that  makes  a  sluggish  river  charm- 
ing. The  theory  of  the  Vauban  system  is  as  simple  as  it  is  ingenious. 
One  digs  one's  canal  in  a  zigzag,  casting  up  the  excavated  mud  upon 
the  home  bank;  thus  one  has  a  moated  earthwork.  The  small  zigzag 
is  to  provide  stations  for  guns  to  rake  the  water  laterally  as  the  attack- 
ing troops  seek  to  cross.  You  dig  your  line  of  canal  thus  ~^'— ri 
place  a  gun  in  the  redoubts  at  a  and  b ;  and  there  you  are.  An  enemy 
crossing  the  line  would  be  blown  to  pieces  from  the  side.     So  at  least 


LIBERTIES   OF  THE  PORT  AND  MARSH  OF  ROMNEY.       171 

they  thought  in  the  time  of  Vauban  and  later  in  the  time  of  Napoleon.  In 
addition  to  this,  the  embankments  and  the  trees  upon  them  would  afford 
shelter  for  riflemen.  The  canal  is  thus  by  way  of  being  an  unmixed 
blessing.  Just  what  the  Marsh  would  appear  without  it  one  cannot  say, 
though  one  may  see  early  engravings  in  which  the  Level  has  a  compara- 
tively commonplace  appearance.  But  that  may  be  due  to  the  character 
of  the  engravings. 

The  canal  was  used  for  transport  purposes  until  quite  lately,  barges 
carrying  coal  to  the  Marsh  villages.  This,  however,  is  a  thing  of  the  past 
— the  making  of  the  unprofitable  railway  to  Romney  proving  its  death- 
blow. The  villages  along  the  northern  bank  of  the  canal  are,  as  a  rule, 
quite  small  and  unimportant ;  but  each  of  them  has  a  character  of  its 
own.  They  run  down  the  slopes  marshwards,  separated  from  each  other, 
generally,  by  little  woods  —  "shaves"  we  call  them,  remembering  the 
green-shaws  of  our  ancestors.  There  is  Ham  Street  with  its  one  or 
two  pretty  old  white  houses ;  Ruckinge  with  a  fine  Norman  church ; 
Bilsington  at  its  four  cross-roads — "  wantways "  is  the  local  word ;  and, 
finally,  scattered  Bonnington. 

Between  these  last  two  villages  stands  Bilsington  Priory,  the  former 
abode  of  a  settlement  of  Austin  Friars.  The  dilapidated  building  stands 
high  and  grim  above  one  of  the  little  streams  that  finds  its  way  into  the 
canal  near  Bilsington  bridge.  The  priory  has  a  bad  reputation ;  most 
of  the  village-people  will  assure  you  that  they  would  not  sleep  in  it — 
not  for  a  mint  of  guineas.  It  is  haunted  by  a  prior  who  tells  red-hot 
beads  in  the  shadows,  and  by  a  woman  who  was — so  they  say — done  to 
death  by  her  husband.  This  last  ghost  is  of  comparatively  modern 
creation  and  of  entirely  plebeian  origin.  The  woman  to  whom  it  be- 
longed is  said  to  have  led  a  miserable  life  with  her  curmudgeon  of  a 
husband.  She  finally  excited  his  wrath  by  letting  a  tray  full  of  their 
best  china  fall  down  the  main  stairs.  He  thereupon  murdered  her.  In 
consequence,  almost  every  night,  one  may  hear  the  sound  of  china  being 


172  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

let  fall  down  the  principal  staircase.  They  say  that  thirteen  clergymen 
were  employed  to  lay  the  ghost  in  a  sealed  cupboard,  and  that,  only 
twelve  attending,  their  efforts  were  in  vain.  I  was  told  this  latter  story 
by  a  quite  unimaginative  youth,  the  son  of  one  of  the  clergymen  in 
question. 

Even  the  last  inhabitant  but  one  (perhaps  the  last  but  two  by  this 
time,  so  quickly  do  the  supernatural  visitants  render  the  priory  unin- 
habitable) saw  a  ghost  in  broad  daylight.  The  priory  is  almost  in- 
variably occupied  by  a  bailiff —  a  farmer  of  the  smaller  order  —  who 
is  hired  by  the  actual  tenant  of  the  ground.  One  of  the  female  con- 
nections of  the  occupier  in  question  was  left  alone  in  the  building  and 
had  occasion  to  go  to  a  room  in  one  of  the  turrets — her  own  bedroom ; 
I  think  her  errand  was  a  no  more  romantic  one  than  that  of  making  the 
bed.  As  she  entered  the  room  she  saw  seated  on  the  said  bed  a  figure 
that  was  nothing  but  a  large  head  with  something  scarlet  hanging  from 
the  neck  —  something  like  a  bunch  of  beetroots,  she  said.  She  imme- 
diately rushed  from  the  room  and  fell  from  the  top  of  the  stairs  to  the 
bottom,  where  she  remained  until  some  one  came  home  from  the  fields 
for  dinner.  Her  mind  is  said  to  have  been  deranged  for  some  time 
afterwards. 

Superstition  dies  extremely  hard  in  the  face  of  stories  like  this. 
Another  more  extraordinary  one  attaches  to  a  cottage  in  a  neighbour- 
ing parish.  It  was  a  little  two -dwelling- house,  one  end  of  which  was 
occupied  by  a  family  whom  we  will  call  the  Browns,  the  other  by  a  woman 
reputed  a  witch.  Of  the  Browns  there  were  a  crippled  father,  a  mother, 
and  a  son.  Old  Brown  being  past  his  work  was  by  the  son  and  mother 
deemed  fit  for  the  workhouse.  They  accordingly,  in  spite  of  his  pitiful 
lamentations,  had  him  conveyed  thither.  On  the  same  day  the  mother 
chanced  to  offend  the  witch — by  refusing  to  lend  her  a  scrubbing-brush. 
On  the  following  morning  Mrs  Brown  was  dressing  herself  in  front  of 
her  window  when,  as  said  the  old  woman,   my  informant,  "  the  boo-boy 


LIBERTIES    OF   THE  PORT  AND  MARSH   OF  ROMNEY.       173 

come  down  the  chimney  and  joomped  up  on  her  back."  When  she  went 
downstairs  the  old  man's  boots  jumped  off  their  shelf  and  flew  towards 
her  head,  but,  changing  their  course,  contented  themselves  with  dancing 
inverted  on  the  ceiling.  The  old  man's  pipe  flew  through  the  window- 
pane  followed  by  the  fire-irons ;  various  bedroom  articles  came  down  the 
stairs  and  went  after  the  pipe  and  the  fire  -  irons.  The  bed  -  clothes 
foamed  like  a  sea,  began  to  tear  themselves  into  strips  and  to  knot  them- 
selves together  beyond  the  mere  human  unravelling.  The  whole  house, 
my  informant  told  me,  looked  as  if  a  regiment  of  soldiers  had  been 
setting  it  topsy-turvy.  A  little  later  in  the  day  came  news  that  old 
Brown  had  been  "taken  worse"  and  was  in  a  frenzied  condition.  The 
manifestations  continued  throughout  the  day — until,  indeed,  they  fetched 
the  old  man  back  from  the  union. 

I  heard  the  story  from  quite  a  number  of  persons  whose  characters 
altogether  preclude  the  theory  that  they  desired  to  "take  a  rise  out  of  me." 
Indeed  the  old  woman  who  first  told  it  me  merely  did  so  with  the  view 
of  hearing  my  views  on  the  subject.  Was  it  the  spirit  of  the  old  man 
in  the  union  that  travelled  all  those  miles,  or  was  it  the  old  witch  who 
did  it  ?     One  does  not  feel  sure. 

Witches  and  witchcraft  are  still  believed  in  on  the  Marsh.  There  is, 
for  instance,  one  particular  cottage  on  a  frequented  road  that  no  level- 
headed waggoner  will  take  his  team  past.  I  have  myself  observed 
horses  to  be  violently  agitated  when  passing  it.  This  is  probably  ac- 
counted for  by  some  natural  object  that  causes  the  horses  to  shy,  but  the 
occurrences  at  Brown's  cottage  and  the  priory  I  do  not  attempt  to  ex- 
plain. The  priory  itself  is  grim  enough  to  get  on  the  nerves  of  the 
strongest  -  minded  among  us.  It  consists  of  a  body  of  a  large  church 
which  has  since  been  divided  into  the  rooms  of  a  two-storeyed  house.  A 
large  tower  which  was  inhabited  by  the  religious  now  stands  floorless 
and  windowless — a  home  for  owls  and  rats.  The  whole  building  occupies 
a  little  eminence  above  a  rather   gloomy,   wood  -  bordered  valley.     The 


174  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

destroyed  nerves  of  a  twelvemonth  occupant  would  turn  the  noise  of  the 
owls  and  rats  into  very  effective  bogeys,  had  not  the  smugglers,  for 
purposes  of  their  own,  given  the  place  an  evil  reputation. 

One  of  the  most  notorious  of  the  free-trading  gangs  had  its  head- 
quarters at  the  end  of  the  priory  valley.  It  was  styled  the  Old  Bourne 
Gang,  taking  its  name  from  the  little  stream  that  ran  beside  its  head- 
quarters. The  little  valley  is  there  excessively  secluded  ;  lies  among 
rather  steep  hills,  and  is  reached  by  almost  impassable  roads.  In  its 
banks  there  were  a  number  of  caves,  many  of  which  are  still  discover- 
able. The  cottage  which  the  smugglers  called  their  "Tap"  stood  on  the 
very  edge  of  the  thick  priory  woods.  Here  the  gang  met  to  discuss 
their  plans.  If  the  revenue  officers  interrupted  them  they  escaped  into 
the  wood,  where  following  them  was  out  of  the  question. 

The  leaders  hired  labourers  from  the  surrounding  villages — farm- 
hands and  who  not  ;  these  they  paid  ys.  a  -  night  for  the  easy  task  of 
riding  a  horse  loaded  with  a  couple  of  kegs  from  the  sea  -  shore  to 
Canterbury.  The  horses  they  requisitioned  of  the  neighbouring  farmers, 
who  were  thoroughly  terrorised.  Their  methods  in  this  matter  were  ex- 
ceedingly simple.  The  father  of  an  old  lady,  who  died  last  winter,  came 
to  the  Marsh  from  some  other  district.  He  had  just  taken  up  his  farm 
between  Hythe  and  Dymchurch,  and  had  bought  two  or  three  horses  at 
Hythe  on  a  market-day,  when,  on  his  homeward  road,  he  was  handed  a 
note  saying  that  these  would  be  required  at  such  a  spot  on  the  coast  on 
the  following  night.  Being  strange  to  the  place,  he  did  not  comply  with 
this  request.  A  few  nights  afterwards  he  was  awakened  from  his  sleep 
by  having  the  garden  gate  thrown  through  his  bedroom  window ;  when 
he  looked  out  he  was  greeted  by  a  charge  of  small-shot ;  in  the  morning 
his  team  was  found  to  have  been  ham-strung.  After  that  he  lent  his 
horses. 

The  marine  free-traders  worked  in  conjunction  with  those  on  land  ;  set 
their  cargoes  ashore  at  prearranged  points  and  so  on.     If  a  revenue  cutter 


LIBERTIES   OF  THE  PORT  AND  MARSH  OF  ROMNEY.       175 

proved  too  pressing  in  its  attentions,  they  took  their  bearings  and  then 
sunk  their  tubs,  returning  after  the  danger  was  over  to  drag  them  up 
again. 

The  leading  spirits  of  the  Old  Bourne  Gang,  according  to  the 
local    legends,    were    members    of  a   famous    contrabandist    family   called 

R- .       To    the    credit   of  the    most    daring    of  them  —  he    is    said    to 

have  rented  Bonnington  Vicarage  —  the  most  tremendous  feats  are  set. 
On  one  occasion  when  the  Preventives  raided  the  Tap  he  hid  himself  in 
the  bake-oven  and  overheard  a  great  deal  of  talk  that  he  found  profes- 
sionally useful.  A  little  later  the  whole  gang  had  started  for  Canterbury, 
well  loaded  with  contraband  liquors.  They  were  walking  their  horses 
along  the  turf  on  the  roadside  within  the  village  of  Bonnington  when 
they  heard  the  sound  of  hoofs  descending  the  road  from  Aldington, 
trotting  towards  themselves.  They  did  not  dare  to  gallop  away  for  fear 
of  the  sounds  reaching  the  ears  of  the  dragoons  who  were  seeking  them. 
After  a  whispered  consultation   the  body  of  them  halted  in  the  shadow 

of  the    roadside    trees,    and    Jack    R ,   taking  an    empty  tub    on    his 

shoulders,  went  towards  the  approaching  horsemen.  The  dragoons, 
catching  sight  of  him  at  a  little .  distance,  galloped  towards  him,  where- 
upon he  turned  and  fled  past  his  silent  comrades.  He  had  the  reputation 
of  being  a  tremendous  runner.      The  dragoons  galloped  after  him,   not 

noticing    the    smugglers    in    the   shadow.       R vaulted    over   a   gate 

which  cost  the  soldiers  some  minutes  in  the  opening.  He  thus  gained 
a  sufficient  start  to  let  him  reach  the  woods  in  safety.  Once  there,  he 
was  undiscoverable.  He  threw  down  the  empty  tub  and  went  home  to 
bed.  The  smugglers  meanwhile  pursued  their  way  undisturbed  to 
Canterbury. 

The  greater  part  of  the  gang  was  afterwards  captured,  and  died  to  a 
man  on  the  gallows.  They  say  that,  years  afterwards,  an  old  man  returned 
from  Australia  to  his  native  village.  He  lived  until  comparatively  lately  in 
the  odour  of  sanctity,  drew  a  small  pension  from  Government,  was  liberal, 


176  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

and  generally  respected.  The  population  of  the  village  turned  out  to  a 
man  to  do  honour  to  his  funeral  obsequies.  It  appeared  afterwards  that 
this  venerable  person  was  the  informer  who  had  hanged  the  Old  Bourne 
Gang,  and  that  his  modest  pension  was  the  Government's  price  for  his 
treachery.  The  people  who  attended  his  funeral  were  nearly  all  children 
of  the  men  in  whose  hanging  he  had  had  a  hand.  That,  at  least,  is  the 
local  story. 

The    R s,    they    say,    escaped    on    this    occasion ;    four    of   them 

— two  men  and  two  women.  After  the  dispersal  of  the  smugglers 
these  four  earned  a  handsome  living  by  taking  purses  on  the  highway. 
The  women  were  as  formidable  as  their  brothers,  rode  astride,  pre- 
sented pistols,  and  used  even  prettier  oaths.  Finally  they  broke  into 
the  house  of  some  maiden  ladies  in  an  inland  village  near  the  London 
road.  They  took,  among  other  things,  a  pair  of  carriage -horses,  and 
these  proved  their  undoing.  They  were  speedily  pursued,  and,  being 
too  tenacious  to  turn  adrift  the  fat  and  slow -going  animals,  were  over- 
taken. Before  this,  however,  they  had  decided  that  the  horses  must  be 
put  away  for  a  time,  and  had  tied  them  up  in  a  roadside  wood,  meaning 
to  return  for  them.  On  emerging  from  the  wood  they  were  seized.  The 
wretched  horses,  unable  to  free  themselves,  were  starved  to  death.      It  is 

affecting    to    hear    that    in    their   speech    from   the    scaffold    the    R s 

averred  that  the  only  one  of  their  many  crimes  that  they  repented  of 
was  the  starving  of  the  horses.  They  could  not  bear,  they  said,  to 
think  of  what  the  poor  beasts  had  suffered.  Before  their  execution, 
however,  as  eminently  practical  persons,  they  had  decided  that  one  of 
them  at  least  should  escape  by  turning  king's — I  am  not  sure  that  it 
was  not  queen's — evidence.  They  accordingly  cast  lots,  and  the  luck 
falling  to  one  of  the  women,  she  made  the  best  of  it  and  saved  her 
neck. 

I  had  these  stories  from  old  men  and  old  women  who  claimed  to  have 
seen  the  incidents  as  I   have  told  them,  to  have  acted  in  many  of  them. 


LIBERTIES   OF   THE  PORT  AND  MARSH  OF  ROMNEY.       177 

My  informants  have,  however,  nearly  all  died  within  the  last  few  years. 
The  hard  winters  and  the  hard  times  kill  them  off  They  go,  bitterly 
lamenting  the  old  times.  Those  were  the  days.  One  old  man — a  mole- 
catcher  by  profession — affirmed  that  until  he  reached  the  age  of  thirty 
he  had  a  pint  of  smuggled  gin  to  his  supper  every  day  of  his  life.  He 
is  now  in  the  Union — the  last  home  of  almost  every  soul  in  these 
parts ;  of  every  soul,  that  is,  that  does  not  have  the  luck  to  be  snapped 
up  by  a  hard  winter  before  the  relieving  officers  deem  it  time  to  stop 
their  outdoor  relief 

In  these  villages,  where  there  are  no  squires  and  no  resident  gentry, 
and  where  the  clergy  are  as  poor  as  any  other  man,  the  lot  of  the 
labourer  is  sad  in  the  extreme — incredibly  so  in  winter.  He  has,  as  a 
rule,  an  enormous  family.  In  one  village  that  I  could  name  an  old  man 
with  eleven  children  married  an  old  woman  with  twelve.  The  philosophy 
of  the  union  was  simple  enough.  They  pooled  their  scanty  household 
goods,  took  care  of  each  other,  and  halved  their  rents. 

During  the  summer  the  cottager's  lot  is  just  bearable.  He  earns 
about  14s.  a-week — sometimes  more,  sometimes  less ;  but  this  is  barely 
sufficient  to  keep  body  and  soul  together.  In  the  winter,  work  falls  off, 
there  is  very  little  in  the  garden,  and  there  is  nowadays  no  one  to 
dispense  coals  and  blankets.  As  for  savings — we  are  not  a  provident 
folk;  we  have  our  virtues,  but  that  is  not  among  them.  We  leave  it 
to  an  inferior  race  whose  land  we  can  see  on  a  clear  day.  Nevertheless, 
the  cottager  manages  to  keep  getting  about,  as  he  says,  until  the  years 
sap  his  vitality.  Then  the  lifelong  want  of  decent  nourishment  begins 
to  tell.  As  children  they  were  starved,  as  men  they  were  to  a  man 
dyspeptic  through  eating  food  like  the  fat  pork  and  cheese  that  form 
the  chief  of  their  diet.  Thus  in  old  age  they  are  crabbed  and  crippled 
with  rheumatism,  they  have  no  blood  in  their  veins.  Then  a  hard 
winter  kills  them  off  like  finches  under  a  hedge — and  hard  winters  are 
by  no  means   the  exception  in  these  parts.     Twice  within  the  last  four 

M 


178  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

years  I  have  been  snowed  up,  the  roads  have  been  absolutely  impass- 
able for  carts ;  narrow  lanes  have  had  1 3-foot  drifts  in  them  whilst  in 
London  the  winter  sun  has  shone.  That  sort  of  thing  kills  off  the  old 
people.  During  one  such  winter,  in  one  parish,  two  people  were  frozen 
to  death ;  and  I  should  not  care  to  say  how  many  died  of  the  effects 
of  cold  and  hunger  combined.  I  sat  on  the  coroner's  jury  on  one  of  the 
frozen  ones.  He  was  a  kind  of  village  idiot,  a  queer,  shambling, 
Elizabethan  figure,  who  had  not  slept  within  doors  for  years  and  years. 
He  had  been  deemed  impervious  to  the  weather,  had  passed  through 
many  such  winters.  The  inquest  was  a  grimly  grotesque  function.  We 
marched  off  to  view  the  body  lying  in  the  shed  in  which  the  man  had 
died,  then  returned  through  the  snow  to  deliberate.  There  were  not 
enough  good  men  and  true  to  form  an  orthodox  dozen ;  we  had,  I 
think,  to  be  content  with  eleven,  who  were  in  turn  witnesses  and  jury- 
men. There  was  a  vast  deal  of  discussion  as  to  the  man's  age.  Some 
said  that  he  was  fifty  -  four,  others  made  it  near  seventy.  Then  we 
debated  as  to  who  had  seen  him  last :  some  of  us  had  given  him  tea, 
others  dinner,  on  such  and  such  a  day.  He  was  supported  by  meals  that 
were  given  him  on  different  days  of  the  week  by  different  cottagers.  He 
did  not  fare  very  badly,  for  it  turned  out  that  he  had  had  two  teas 
every  day  in  different  houses  besides  other  regular  meals.  Finally  it  was 
decided  that  he  had  been  last  seen  by  an  exceedingly  deaf  and  ancient 
man  who  wore  the  orthodox  smock  and  beaver  of  the  forties.  This  man 
lived  in  the  cottage  adjoining  the  shed  in  which  Ben  had  died. 

"  Ah  seed  'im  a  Thursday,"  he  said  in  answer  to  the  coroner. 
"  'E  were  a  stannin'  in  th'  dure  o'  th'  old  lodge  and  he  hadn'  got 
nothin'  on." 

We  looked  amazedly  at  the  old  man,  who  seemed  to  think  it  a 
laughable  thing  to  have  seen  a  man  stand  naked  in  the  midst  of  the 
snowdrifts. 

"  Ben  always  undressed  hisself  'foore  he  went  to  bed,"  he  explained. 


LIBERTIES   OF   THE  PORT  AND  MARSH  OF  ROMNEY.       179 

"But  what  did  you  do  to  him?  what  did  you  say?"  the  coroner 
asked. 

A  gleam  of  pride  came  into  the  old  man's  mild  and  honest  blue 
eyes.     He  had  achieved  a  crowning  witticism. 

"Do?"  he  answered.  "Ah  ses  to  him,  'Lor,  Ben,  I've  a  mind  to 
snowball  'ee.'" 

So  we  live  and  so  die  down  by  the  marshes. 

But  in  spite  of  a  piece  of  witty  stupidity  like  this,  it  must  not  be 
imagined  that  the  villager  of  these  parts  is  a  stupid  person.  Indeed, 
when  he  is  compared  with  the  peasants  of  the  inlands  he  is  a  man  of 
the  world.  He  is  intensely  suspicious  of  what  he  calls  "  the  quality," 
is  for  them  almost  a  sealed  book,  puts  on  for  their  benefit  a  mask  of 
impenetrable  stolidity.  But,  rightly  approached,  he  shines  forth  as  a 
person  of  strong  character,  with  a  pawky,  quaint  humour,  and  a  broadness 
of  mind  that  are  seldom  to  be  found  elsewhere. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  make  him  mend  his  ways,  to  persuade  him 
to  eat  porridge  or  to  put  his  money  in  the  savings  bank ;  but — and  this 
differentiates  him  from  the  populations  of  most  towns  and  villages — he 
does  not  regard  the  doing  of  these  things  by  others  as  a  moral  outrage. 
To  the  foreigner  —  and  he  thinks  every  soul  born  out  of  the  Marsh 
a  foreigner — he  is  quite  kindly  disposed,  regarding  him  tolerantly  from 
the  height  of  an  immense  superiority.  He  is,  moreover,  a  shrewd 
bargainer,  a  person  of  considerable  initiative.  These  things  are  trace- 
able to  the  history  of  his  ancestors.  It  took  a  bold  man  to  settle  in 
the  Marsh  or  in  the  neighbouring  Port -towns — a  man  who  was  ready 
to  meet  the  disasters  of  sword  and  sea  and  pestilence,  and  these  men 
are  the  offspring  of  the  survivors  of  many  such  weedings  out.  They 
are,  in  fact,  the  direct  gift  of  the  Cinque  Port  system  to  the  world  of 
to-day ;  the  descendants  of  men  who  were  at  one  time  pirates,  at  another 
owlers,  and  later,  smugglers. 

Centuries  of  alertness  have   made   them  alert  to-day;   centuries  of 


i8o  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

overbearing,  of  lawless  traditions,  have  left  them  a  trifle  overbearing  and 
very  independent.  One  finds  the  great  names  of  the  history  of  the  Ports 
sheltered  now  by  cottages,  unproclaimed  by  tombstones  when  at  last  the 
churchyards  claim  their  bearers.  Even  now  they  regard  disease  and 
death  with  a  certain  indifference.  Hence  the  joke  of  the  old  man  who 
saw  a  man  die  naked  in  the  snow  at  his  door.  Times  have  very  much 
changed  ;  the  race  is  no  longer  to  men  like  these.  But  the  revolutions 
of  Fortune's  wheel  may  bring  back  a  set  of  circumstances  akin  to  those 
in  which  the  Ports  flourished.  When  it  does,  the  old  clay  will  still  be 
ready  for  the  hand  of  the  Potter. 

At  Bonnington  bridge  one  does  best  to  climb  the  hill  into  Aldington. 
The  place  still  retains  a  certain  savour  of  the  archi-episcopal.  On  the 
right  hand  of  the  road  to  Lympne  one  may  still  see  the  house  in  which 
the  martyred  Maid  of  Kent  was  servant  to  Mr  Thomas  Kob.  It  retains 
the  name  of  Cobb's  Hall.  Nowadays  it  is  a  humble  black-and-white 
two-dwelling  house.  The  rooms,  however,  contain  some  elaborate  wood 
carving,  and  in  the  lower  storeys  are  ceiled  with  ancient  oak.  On  the 
upper  floors  there  are  to  be  seen  some  remains  of  graceful  plaster- work 
ceilings  —  very  fine  Renaissance  of  its  kind.  Over  the  mantelpiece  of 
one  room  there  is  a  rude  but  vivid  plaster  representation  of  the  fall 
of  our  first  parents.  One  sees  the  tree  of  knowledge,  the  serpent,  God 
the  Father,  and  Adam  and  Eve  themselves,  together  with  a  tribe  of 
fabulous  monsters  that  suggest  the  designer's  acquaintance  with  the 
ichthyosauri  that  later  science  has  revealed  to  us.  Perhaps  the  visions 
of  the  Maid  gained  vividness  from  the  daily  sight  of  this  local 
chef-d'ceuvre. 

The  church  is  a  particularly  fine  one,  and  contains  some  magnificent 
carved  stalls.  The  tower  was  built  by  Archbishop  Warham,  and  is  said 
to  be  the  last  piece  of  Roman  Catholic  pre  -  Reformation  architecture 
discoverable.  The  residence  of  Erasmus  and  Warham  in  the  place 
confer  a  sort  of  lustre  on  Aldington.     Warham  was  a  particularly  sym- 


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LIBERTIES   OF   THE  PORT  AND  MARSH  OF  ROMNEY.       i8i 

pathetic  figure  in  the  rather  dreary  scenes  of  intrigue  that  led  to  the 
ushering  in  of  the  English  Reformation.  He  was  a  fine  scholar,  a 
protector    of    the    New    Learning    that    led    to    religious    reforms    both 

« 

within  and  without  his  own  Church.  But  for  him,  Lydgate  and  a  number 
of  other  forwarders  of  the  Protestant  movement  would  have  been  sacri- 
ficed to  the  worse  element  of  the  Church.  He  was,  in  fact,  a  tolerant, 
noble-minded  man,  and  came  like  an  Indian  summer  to  brighten  the  last 
days  of  the  Old  Faith  in  this  country. 

If  Warham  stood  for  the  development  that  led  to  the  renascence  of 
Catholicism,  the  servant  of  Master  Thomas  Kob  stood  for  the  old 
practices  of  the  Church,  for  the  sham  miracles,  the  epileptic  fits,  and  all 
the  rest  of  the  hypnotic  paraphernalia  that  still  sporadically  obtain  in 
places  like  Lourdes.  It  is  pleasant  to  think  that  both  tendencies  of 
thought  should  have  touched  hands  long  ago  in  this  litde  Kentish 
village.  The  most  picturesque  part  of  the  place  still  clings  round  the 
church — in  the  hamlet  called  Aldington  Forehead.  Here  quaint  houses, 
with  jutting- over  upper  storeys,  hang  above  a  steeply  descending  road. 
Two  or  three  gigantic  elms  overshadow  the  whole  scene  de  thddtre. 

From  the  top  of  Aldington  Knoll,  which  lies  due  south  of  the  church, 
the  whole  stretch  of  the  marshes  from  Lympne  to  Fairlight  is  to  be 
seen.  Below  one's  feet  one  has  a  vast  level  stretch  dotted  with  tiny 
hamlets,  each  with  a  little  church  and  a  little  clump  of  trees.  One  sees, 
too,  the  coast  of  France,  or,  on  a  night  ever  so  dark,  the  fitful  flash  of 
Grisnez  light.  The  Knoll  is  by  way  of  being  a  sea-mark.  It  has  a 
curious  conical  mound  at  its  summit.  This  mound,  which  is  certainly 
of  ancient  origin,  renders  the  Knoll  unmistakable  to  those  who  sail  the 
sea  in  ships.  In  consequence  it  is  guarded  by  drowned  men  let  out  of 
the  nether  regions  for  the  purpose.  The  farmers  of  the  ground  are 
supposed  to  entertain  an  antipathy  for  it.  It  certainly  renders  the  field 
quite  unfit  for  tillage.  None  of  the  local  labourers  will  attempt  to  dig 
it  down,  knowing  the  nature  of  its  guards.     One  farmer,  it  is  recorded, 


1 82  THE  CINQUE  PORTS. 

went  so  far  as  to  fetch  a  man  from  the  "  Sheeres,"  who  set  about  the 
work  with  a  good  heart  and  a  valiant  ignorance.  He  digged  for  some 
time  until  he  unearthed  a  gigantic  skeleton  and  an  equally  gigantic  sword ; 
but  he  continued  to  dig,  entirely  disregarding  the  very  palpable  warning. 
He  digged  until  after  sunset — was  possessed  by  a  demon  of  digging.  The 
woods  went  very  black  and  the  Marsh  went  very  black  and  the  sky  and 
the  sea.  And  the  man  was  dead.  One  offers  no  explanation  of  the 
death.  The  flaw  in  the  story's  moral  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  farmer 
who  had  played  this  rather  shabby  trick  upon  a  proverbially  ignorant 
"  man  from  the  Sheeres "   entirely  escaped  any  retribution.     As  for  the 

Knoll— 

"  Wheere  he'd  digged  th'  chark  shone  white 

Out  to  sea  like  Calais  light." 

Its  value  as  a  sea-warning  was,  in  fact,  enhanced. 

From  the  Knoll  one  may  walk  to  Lympne  along  the  face  of  the 
hills,  passing  the  Maid's  chapel,  and  having  always  a  magnificent  view 
over  the  reaches  of  the  Marsh.  This,  however,  is  better  seen  from  the 
upper  road.  From  there  the  shape  of  Dungeness  Bay  presents  a  re- 
markable— almost  a  grotesque — appearance.  It  seems  to  have  been  cut 
out  with  a  pair  of  scissors,  and  to  have  been  laid  on  the  level  blue  sea. 
Lympne  contains  two  architectural  feats  of  the  most  enlightening  kind 
— the  church  and  the  medieval  castle.  Both  are  perched  on  the  very 
edge  of  the  cliff.  A  slight  push  would  send  them  hurtling  down  the 
slope.  They  stand  quite  close  together,  the  church  tower  touching  the 
eastern  wall  of  the  archdeacon's  house,  as  the  castle  came  to  be  called. 
The  church  itself  is  mostly  Norman  work,  the  interior  having  nothino- 
vastly  interesting  about  it.  But  the  tower  is  eminently  instructive.  It 
rises  to  a  certain  height — not  a  very  great  one — perfectly  square  and 
simply  made.  It  might  be  a  mere  box  of  modern  builder's  work  except 
for  the  insertion  of  two  round  -  topped  windows  a  little  way  up  in  the 
wall.     But  these  two  windows,  without  any  conscious  attempt  at  decora- 


LIBERTIES    OF  THE  PORT  AND  MARSH  OF  ROMNEY.       183 

tion,  unerringly  placed  at  the  right  spot,  add  the  exact  psychical  touch 
that  was  necessary  to  the  architectural  whole.  No  amount  of  elaborately 
carved  arches  could  do  more  than  detract  from  the  simplicity,  detract 
from  the  decorative  power.  The  castle  when  seen  from  the  north  is 
a  mere  ivy  -  clad  dwelling  -  house  —  a  rather  superior  Court  Lodge  farm. 
But  if  one  takes  the  trouble  to  descend  the  hill  below  it  and  to  look 
back,  upwards,  one  sees  a  fortified  dwelling  that  for  imposingness,  for 
absolute  appropriateness  to  place  and  time,  it  would  be  impossible  to 
match.  It  has  some  of  the  quality  of  a  jewel-casket,  takes  some  of  the 
colour  of  one  from  the  plants  that  grow  out  of  its  crannies.  It  gains 
something,  too,  from  its  situation ;  one  sees  it  against  the  sky,  above  a 
green,  very  steep  hillside.  But  these  are  only  additions.  One  has 
situations  as  good,  skies  as  good,  unoccupied  to-day ;  but  who  sets  on 
them  buildings  as  perfect  in  outline  ?  who  has  the  unerring  instinct  of 
the  man  who  placed  just  that  building  just  there  ? 

Out  of  the  hillside  rise  the  ruins  of  Stutfall  Castle  —  the  Roman 
fortress.  It  stands  very  much  as  it  must  have  done  for  ages  past : 
one  still  sees  Leland's  "  Britons'  brickes "  sticking  out  of  the  stones  of 
it.  Otherwise  there  is  not  very  much  of  it  to  be  seen ;  in  one  place  an 
ancient  cottage  has  been  built  into  the  more  ancient  wall.  One  has  to 
imagine  the  Romans  and  their  castle,  and  the  imagination  has  not  very 
much  to  help  it  in  its  building. 

To  reach  Romney  again  one  strikes  into  the  open  Marsh.  One 
passes  through  a  quaint  hamlet  called  Botolph's  Bridge,  where  once 
stood  a  gallows-tree.  There  is  at  least,  in  an  eighteenth-century  map 
of  the  Marsh,  a  representation  —  very  realistic  —  of  the  gaunt  erection, 
with  the  figure  of  a  man  hanging  by  the  neck.  Who  he  was  or  what 
he  died  for  I  do  not  know.  His  fame  has  not  lived  in  the  land,  and 
his  bones  have  rotted  away. 

The  road  winds  away  to  Dymchurch  even  more  circuitously  than 
do  most  of  the  Marsh  roads.     It  seems  to  be  intent  on  presenting  the 


1 84  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

buildings  on  Lympne  Hill  from  as  many  different  angles  as  it  may. 
Perhaps  it  wishes  us  to  learn  how  fair  the  world  might  be  if  we  would 
make  it  so.  The  proceeding  is,  however,  a  perilous  one.  One  fears 
that  some  enthusiast  for  the  picturesque  may  be  moved  to  take  Lympne 
Castle  in  hand  and  make  it  fit  to  live  in— fit  to  live  in  as  one  lives  at 
Croydon  or  South  Kensington.  Dymchurch,  that  one  next  reaches,  is  a 
pleasant  little  village  at  the  very  bottom  of  the  bay.  It  is  small  and 
white  and  very  still,  nestling  beneath  the  shadow  of  the  high  sea-wall. 
It  is  as  quiet  as  quiet  can  be.  It  can  at  present  be  reached  only  by 
omnibus  or  by  cycle  from  Hythe.  But  they  talk  of  running  a  railway 
between  it  and  Romney  or  Hythe,  and  it  bids  fair  to  change  from  a 
haven  of  rest  into  a  den  of — lodging-house-keepers. 

The  next  place  that  one  reaches  is  Romney,  distant  two  and  three- 
quarter  miles  more  or  less.  One  may  turn  off  to  the  right  and  ex- 
plore the  little  villages  in  the  heart  of  the  Marsh.  There  are  many  of 
them,  and  most  have  a  subtle  charm  that  it  is  easier  to  note  than  to 
describe — easier,  that  is,  hominibus  bonce  voluntatis.  Not  all  of  us  have 
that  goodwill,  but  those  that  have  inherit  what  peace  there  is  on 
earth. 


hythe: 


CHAPTER    X. 


Saltwood  Castle. 


THE  PORT  OF  HYTHE,  THE  TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE,  AND 
THE  NEIGHBOURHOOD. 


Enthusiasts  trace  the  descent  of  the  Ports  from  the  similar  organisations 
of  the  Romans.  They  might,  if  they  would,  go  a  step  further,  and 
allege  that  the  Ports  derived  from  the  early  Britons.  Of  all  this  im- 
mediate neighbourhood,  it  is  the  shores  between  and  the  high  grounds 
behind  Folkestone  Warren  and  West  Hythe  that  offer  the  best  foun- 
dations for  that  theory.  One  may  find  as  many  flint  implements  as  one 
cares  for  in  and  around  the  former  place.  A  sufficiency  of  bronze  ones 
have  been  unearthed  between  the  railway-stations  of  Hythe  and  Sandling. 
One  may  find  several  British  camps  too — the  effects  of  the  strenuous, 
if  unconscious,  efforts  of  the  earliest  of  men  to  be  remembered.  They 
did  a  number  of  things — they  fought,  they  loved,  they  sang,  they  reaped 


1 86  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

their  harvests.  One  sees  a  few  grass-grown  mounds,  reads  of  marvellously 
made  earthworks.  To  know  jnore  of  them  one  must  remember  how 
one  felt  when  one  oneself  fought,  loved,  sang,  reaped — built  marvellously- 
made  sandworks  on  the  sea-shore,  wrote  one's  name  in  water.  If  one 
leaves  as  much  for  remembrance  as  a  heap  of  earth  one  may  deem 
oneself  happy  among  ghosts.  But  I  rather  think  that  the  arms  and 
the  men  of  to-day  will  hardly  last  as  long  in  the  earth  as  the  "  celts, 
swords,  daggers,  and  gouges  "  which  were  discovered  when  the  Sandling 
to  Sandgate  railway  line  was  a-making. 

The  railway  navvies  came  upon  what  must  have  been  an  ar- 
mourer's shop  in  its  day — an  armourer's  shop  in  pre- Roman  days.  The 
things  found  were  all  of  cast  bronze,  and  all  of  them,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  a  gouge,  "  intentionally  broken  into  fragments  for  the  pro- 
cess of  recasting ;  and  exhibit  the  appearance  that  may  be  witnessed 
any  day  in  a  caster's  shop  in  Clerkenwell  in  which  old  metal  or 
spoilt  castings  are  lying  about,  broken  ready  again  for  the  crucible. 
As  if  to  prove  that  this  was  the  case,  a  number  of  rough  ingots  of 
metal  were  found  with  them."  ^  Thus  the  armourer  has  conquered  in 
the  fight  for  remembrance.  If  one  does  not  see  him  in  his  habit  as 
he  lived,  if  one  does  not  know  his  face,  the  lines  of  his  limbs,  one 
sees  him,  at  least,  in  the  tools  with  which  he  lived.  One  knows 
that  he  was  an  artist  in  a  way,  for  one  of  his  spear-heads  is  adorned 
with  concentric  circles. 

Somewhat  to  the  north-east  of  this  place  and  a  little  to  the  north 
of  Folkestone  stands  the  easily  descried  camp  called  Caesar's.  There 
is  very  little  doubt  that  this  too  was  a  British  vicus,  none  whatever 
that  Julius  Ceesar  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  making  of  it. 
It  was  probably  a  British  fortification,  possibly  an  assembly  of  the 
curious  man-pits  that  they  have  left  to  puzzle  one  all  over  the  face  of 
the  country.     It  may  even  have  been  the  site  of  a  hut- town — tuguria, 

1  J.  G.  Waller,  ArchasologiLal  Journal,  vol.  xxx. 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  187 

as  they  are  called.  Various  writers  have  a  theory  that  Hythe  was  a 
British  town,  that  it  was  the  chief  port  of  this  part  of  Britain  in  the 
time  of  Caesar.  If  this  were  the  case,  the  place  can  hardly  have  been 
on  the  site  of  the  present  town. 

Of  the  Romans  themselves  numerous  traces  are  to  be  found  in  the 
district.  They  are  said  —  probably  untruthfully  —  to  have  founded  the 
castle  at  Folkestone,  to  have  scolloped  out  the  hill  called  Caesar's 
Camp,  to  have  founded  Saltwood  Castle,  and  so  on.  But  the  only 
almost  certainly  authentic  Roman  building  of  these  parts  is  the  basilica 
of  Lyminge,  which  existed  above  ground  until  well  into  the  present 
century.  This  building  has  been  very  carefully  examined  and  described 
by  the  late  Canon  Jenkins  of  Lyminge.^  As  far  as  the  dimensions  of 
its  foundation  are  concerned,  it  fulfils  almost  exactly  the  requirements 
of  the  Christian  Roman  basilica  of  Vitruvius.  It  lies  immediately  to 
the  north  of  the  present  church  of  the  town.  Of  its  history  under 
the  Romans  we  know  nothing.  It  was  probably  built  in  the  second 
or  third  century  of  the  present  era. 

Folkestone,  in  the  times  which  succeeded  the  departure  of  the 
Romans,  is  said  to  have  been  the  scene  of  the  great  battle  between 
Vortimer  and  Hengist.  This  opinion  is  founded  upon  the  following 
passage  from  the  Nennius  version  of  Gildas's  Chronicle :  "  Quartum  hel- 
ium in  campo  juxta  Lapidem  Tituli,  qui  est  super  ripam  Gallici  maris, 
commisit;  et  barbari  victi  sunt,  et  ille  victor  fuit,  et  ipsi  in  fugam  versi, 
usque  ad  ciulas  suas  reversi  sunt  in  eas  muliebriter  intrantes."^  In- 
genious commentators  like  Somners  and  Stukely  suggest  the  substitution 
of  Populi  for  Tituli,  thus  extracting  the  "stone  of  the  folk,"  or  Folkestone. 
But  this  reverse  for  the  cause  of  Hengist  seems  to  be  identical  with  the 
battle  of  Wippedsfleet  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  and  with  that  which, 
according   to   the   Gododin,   took  place   near   the   "  Lech    Titleu " — "  the 

'  Arch.  Cantiana,  vols.  iv.  and  xviii.  Stonar  is  the  most  probable  translation  of  "  Lapis 

2  Nennii  Hist.  Brit.,  Stevenson's  ed.,  p.  35,  36.      Tituli." 


1 88  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

stone  of  Titleu."  Whatever  be  the  truth  of  the  matter,  the  Saxons  seem 
to  have  been  handsomely  beaten,  and  for  a  time,  at  least,  to  have  been 
ejected  from  the  country. 

The  bones  in  the  crypt  of  Hythe  church  are  occasionally  assigned  to 
the  combatants  in  this  battle ;  but  Dr  Knox,  in  a  paper  read  before  the 
Ethnological  Society,  decides  that  the  skulls  are  not  of  a  primitive  type, 
although  several  of  them  resemble  the  Ozengell  skull.  It  is  true  that 
fragments  of  Roman  and  Saxon  pottery  were  found  when  the  pile  was 
last  restacked,  but  so  also  was  medieval  ware.  Hasted  goes  so  far  as  to 
assert  that  the  bones  preserved  at  Hythe  were  those  of  the  Saxons, 
whilst  those  which  he  supposed  to  be  stored  at  Folkestone  had  formerly 
belonged  to  the  Britons.  This,  however,  is  quite  absurd.  There  never 
was  any  considerable  collection  of  bones  at  Folkestone.  Hasted 
was  misled  by  a  passage  in  the  Itinerary  of  Leland,  who  speaks 
of  having  seen  bones  sticking  out  of  the  cliff  near  the  ruins  of  the 
old  monastery. 

But  to  reach  a  place  pre-eminent  for  its  Saxon  associations  one  must 
once  again  travel  as  far  as  Lymlnge  —  the  last  home  of  "la  douce  et 
devouee  Ethelburga."  ^  The  life  of  Ethelburga  herself  is  too  generally 
familiar  to  need  retelling.  A  romantic  halo  hangs  round  her  name, 
and,  although  one  knows  very  little  of  her,  she  stands  for  sweetness 
and  light.  One  can  learn  from  Alban  Butler  and  the  '  Nova  Legenda 
Angliae '  that  she  was  austere ;  that  she  was  witty  in  a  saintly  way ; 
that,  in  such  matters  at  least,  she  was  more  than  a  match  for  the 
rude  huscarles  of  Edwin.  Upon  Edwin's  death  she  "  obtained  from 
her   brother   the   gift   of  an   ancient    Roman    villa,    where    she    founded 

'  "  Cette  douce  et  devoude  Ethelburga  ...  se  consacra  k  la  vie  religieuse  .  .  .  fille  du  fon- 

obtint  de  son  fr&re  le  don  d'une  ancienne  villa  dateur  de  Cantorbdry  et  veuve  du  fondateur  de 

romaine,  situde  entre  Canterbury  et  la  mer,  du  York,  elle  servit  ainsi  de  premier  anneau  entre 

cotd  qui  regarde  la  France  ;   elle   y  fonda  une  les  deux  grand  foyers  de  la  vie  catholique  chez 

monast&re  ou  elle  prit  elle  meme  le  voile.     Elle  les  Anglo-Saxons." — Montalembert, '  Les  Moines 

fut  ainsi  la  premiere  veuve  de  race  saxonne  qui  de  I'Occident,'  vol.  v. 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  189 

a  nunnery  and  a  monastery,  and  where  she  spent  the  last  years  of 
her  life." 

Canon  Jenkins  has  clearly  proved  that  the  nunnery  in  question  was 
housed  in  the  great  Roman  basilica  of  which  I  have  spoken.  The 
monks,  perhaps,  used  a  part  of  the  place,  for  I  am  not  aware  that 
any  remains  of  their  buildings  have  been  found  on  the  south  side  of 
Lyminge  church. 

The  subsequent  history  of  the  "  Basilica  Beatae  Mariae  genetricis  Dei 
quae  sita  est  in  loco  qui  dicitur  Limingae "  ^  was  somewhat  as  follows  : 
During  the  ninth  century  the  inhabitants  of  the  nunnery  were,  for  fear  of 
the  Danes,  removed  to  Canterbury.  The  monks,  however,  remained,  and 
duly  fell  victims.  Nearly  all  of  them  were  butchered  by  the  Danes  circa 
850.  Subsequently  (in  904)  the  place  was  granted  to  the  all  -  devour- 
ing Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  and  consequently  to  the  archbishops. 
The  Lyminge  monks  were  thereupon  dispersed,  and  the  basilica  itself 
became  the  Aula  of  the  Primates.  Its  grandeur  remained,  for  we  read 
that  thither  Archbishop  Peckham  went  with  an  immense  train  to  receive 
the  homage  of  the  Earl  of  Gloucester.  The  basilica  was  dismantled 
by  the  rather  unpleasant  Courtenay,  who  with  its  spoils  furnished 
forth  the  splendours  of  Saltwood  Castle,  where  he  lived.  It  was 
then  gradually  pulled  to  pieces  —  used  as  a  quarry  for  the  stone  of 
the  new  church.  It  nevertheless  remained  above  ground  until  the 
present  century,  when  Canon  Jenkins's  predecessor  in  the  living 
allowed  its  remains  to  be  finally  disposed  of,  and  its  stones  to  be 
incorporated  in  the  walls  of  pigsties  and  other  necessary  houses. 
St  Ethelburga  herself  remained  in  her  "  eminentius  et  augustius  monu- 
mentum  in  aquilonali  porticu  ad  australem  ecclesiae  parietem  arcu  involu- 
tum "  until  a  far  more  questionable  saint — Dunstan  of  the  tongs — had 
her  body  removed  to  Canterbury.  Several  charters  of  the  convent  re- 
main.     The   most  interesting  of  them  is  that  of  Duke  Oswulf,   "  which 

'  Charter  ofWihtraid  (697-715). 


190  THE  CINQUE  PORTS. 

is  supposed"  by  Canon  Jenkins  "to  be  the  earliest  instance  of  the  foun- 
dation of  masses  for  the  repose  of  the  dead." 

Dunstan  himself  is  locally  supposed  to  have  been  intimately  con- 
nected with  Lyminge,  but  I  have  carefully  examined  the  '  Memorials  of 
St  Dunstan '  without  finding  any  mention  of  the  place. 

Folkestone  was  the  abiding-place  of  the  niece  of  St  Ethelburga — 
St  Eanswith,  a  rather  less  sympathetic  lady.  She  performed  a  number 
of  miracles  —  made  water  flow  uphill,^  lengthened  beams  which  had 
been  sawn  too  short,  and  so  on.  She  founded  her  convent  church  in 
a  place  not  miraculously  well  chosen,  and  it  was  subsequently  washed 
away.  Her  remains  were,  however,  removed  to  the  present  parish 
church  of  SS.  Mary  and  Eanswith.  Coffins  supposed  to  have  been 
hers  have  been  several  times  discovered — on  the  last  occasion  quite 
lately.  The  coffin  in  this  case  formed  part  of  a  Roman  sarcophagus 
of  lead.  It  contained  a  few  bones  and  a  number  of  human  teeth, 
some  of  which  were  curiously  dyed ;  but  its  authenticity  seems  to  be 
more  than  doubtful,  the  only  circumstance  in  its  favour  being  the 
honourable  position  that  it  occupied  in  the  church  wall. 

The  same  Duke  Oswulf  who  benefited  the  fraternity  at  Lyminge 
left  a  share  of  his  lands  to  Folkestone — indeed  he  divided  between 
these  monasteries  and  those  of  Dover  and  Christ  Church,  Canterbury, 
his  entire  property,  "  subject  to  the  lives  of  his  wife  Beornthsytha  and 
his  children."  At  his  death,  however,  a  lawsuit  of  portentous  length 
arose,  his  stepson  Ethelwulf  contesting  the  will.  The  matter  was 
tried  at  Canterbury  (in  844)  before  a  jury  of  thirty,  of  whom  twelve 
were    interested    monks,    and    the    rest,    according    to    a   writer    in    the 

'  The  stream  which  St  Eanswith  made  to  flow  similar  sight  in  the  valley  of  the  Lohr  in   the 

uphill  may  still  be  seen.     It  does,  by  an  optical  Spessart    Wald.      Here  a   mill-stream  had    so 

illusion,  have  every  appearance  of  being  forced  much  the  apjaearance   of  flowing  uphill  that   it 

to  perform  this  feat,  but  it  is  needless   to   say  was    almost    impossible    to    believe    otherwise, 

that   hydrographers  have   demonstrated   that   it  This   too   was   attributed   to   the  miraculous  in- 

did  nothing  of  the  sort.     I  once  saw  an  almost  tercession  of  a  local  saint. 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  191 

'Archaeologia  Cantiana,'  laymen  attached  to  the  monasteries.  The 
verdict  was  in  favour  of  the  fraternities. 

Hythe  itself  was  granted  to  the  monks  of  Christ  Church — this  first 
in  889.  It  was  regranted  in  1036.  Nothing  really  noteworthy  appears  to 
have  happened  to  the  town  during  the  Saxon  domination.  It  must,  how- 
ever, have  been  fairly  prosperous,  for  Hudanfleot  is  always  mentioned  with 
respect  by  Anglo-Saxon  writers.  It  seems  to  have  been  circumstanced 
very  much  like  its  western  neighbour,  for  just  as  the  houses  of  Rom- 
ney  followed  a  retreating,  eventually  vanishing,  harbour,  so  did  Hythe 
gradually  creep  from  the  foot  of  Lympne  Hill  to  its  present  site.  It 
seems  probable  that,  originally.  West  Hythe  was  the  town  to  protect 
which  the  Roman  Stutfall  Castle  arose.  It  was  a  place  of  one  street, 
stretching  along  what  is  now  the  military  canal  as  far  as  the  beginning 
of  the  new  town.  The  very  concatenation  of  circumstances  that  closed 
up  the  western  harbour  of  Hythe  probably  opened  the  eastern  haven. 
More  or  less  modern  writers  allege  that  the  new  harbour  was  never 
of  any  size  or  importance,  but  this  is  particularly  far  from  having  been 
the  case.  In  early  days  it  was  comparatively  spacious — perhaps  eveni 
positively  so.  It  was  formed,  like  the  harbours  of  Winchelsea  and 
Romney,  by  a  shingle  spit  which  ran  in  the  direction  of  Sandgate, 
and  must  have  been  at  least  a  quarter  of  a  mile  broad  and  more  than 
a  mile  long. 

Unlike  Romney,  Hythe  did  not  distinguish  itself  by  any  resist- 
ance to  the  Conqueror.  It  is  not  directly  mentioned  in  Domesday 
Book,  but  one  learns  that  it  had  225  burgesses  in  the  manor  of 
Saltwood  and  six  belonging  to  Lyminge.  The  greater  part  of  Hythe 
— all  of  it  that  was  in  the  manor  of  Saltwood — had  been  granted  to 
Christ  Church  by  Halfden  in  the  reign  and  presence  of  Cnut. 

Folkestone  itself  was  in  even  more  wretched  case  than  Hythe.  It 
was  absolutely  dependent  on  the  lords  of  its  manor,  and  behaved 
towards  them  almost  more  abjectly  than  did    Hythe  towards  the   arch- 


192  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

bishops.  Lord  Clinton  and  Say,  in  a  series  of  letters  to  the  jurats  of  the 
town,  addresses  them  as  "our  faithfull  commons  of  our  town  of  Folke- 
stone " — and  harangues  them  very  much  as  if  he  were  lord  of  life  and 
death.  Folkestone  municipality  had  practically  no  means  of  its  own — 
indeed  it  very  frequently  paid  its  debtors  in  kind,  sending  them  dishes 
of  lobsters  and  so  on.  A  castle  had  been  built  there  by  William  de 
Avranches,  who  held  the  town  under  Odo  of  Bayeux.  The  castle,  it  is 
true,  is  said  to  have  been  built  by  Eadbald  of  Kent — "about  looo  years 
since,"  according  to  Philipot.  Leland,  of  course,  speaks  of  the  "  Britons' 
brickes "  in  its  walls,  but  neither  Philipot  nor  Leland  are  much  to  be 
trusted  in  the  matter. 

Saltwood  Castle,  again,  became  the  property  of  Hugh  de  Montfort, 
or,  as  seems  more  likely,  was  built  by  him.  In  the  struggles  between 
Henry  L  and  Robert  Curthose,  the  grandson  of  De  Montfort  favoured 
the  wrong,  or  at  least  the  losing  side,  and  the  castle  reverted  to  the 
Crown.  According  to  the  local  tradition,  the  murderers  of  St  Thomas 
of  Canterbury  matured  their  plans  for  the  murder  in  a  room  in  Salt- 
wood  Castle  —  indeed  one  used  to  be  shown  the  room  in  which  they 
were  said  to  have  held  their  council ;  but  inasmuch  as  the  said  room 
is  of  Edwardian  construction,  the  showers  of  it  were  probably  mistaken. 
Garnier,  an  eyewitness  of  the  murder,  says,  "  A  Saltwode  sunt  li  felun 
retourn^." 

During  the  whole  duration  of  the  cult  of  St  Thomas,  Hythe  was 
a  principal  port  of  entry  for  foreign  pilgrims  —  the  pilgrim  -  roads  are 
still  visible  enough — and  this  fact  just  saved  the  town  from  the  charge 
of  being  a  purely  local  port,  like  Romney.  St  Thomas  himself  is  said 
to  have  oracularly  declared  that  Hythe  was  the  safest  port  for  those 
sailing  to  Boulogne. 

The  contributions  of  Hythe  to  the  Ports  navy  seem  never  to  have 
exceeded  five,  although  it  was  a  capital  port ;  yet  Folkestone,  according 
to  Stephen  de   Pencestre's  return,  contributed  seven  ships  to  the  quota 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  193 

of  Dover. ^  Hythe,  like  Romney,  had  its  Port  privileges  suspended  after 
the  battle  of  Sluys  because  it  had  proved  remiss  in  its  contributions.  It 
had,  however,  much  to  contend  with  and  much  to  excuse  it.  It  had  to 
bear  more  descents  of  the  French  than  any  other  town  ;  it  was  once — 
perhaps  twice  —  burnt  down  accidentally,  and  was  once  almost  totally 
depopulated  by  the  plague.  Says  Leland  :  "In  the  time  of  Edward 
the  2,  there  were  burned  by  Casueltie  xviii  Score  Howses  and  mo,  and 
strayt  folowed  great  Pestilens,  and  thes  ii  things  minished  the  town."^ 
Unless,  however,  there  were  two  conflagrations  in  the  place,  Leland  is 
wrong  in  the  reign  he  assigns  as  witnessing  the  burning,  for  Henry  V. 
granted  a  "release"  to  the  town  for  a  precisely  similar  misfortune. 

Local  tradition  says  that  Hythe  was  seven  times  ravaged  by  the 
French,  and  although  this  estimate  may  be  too  great,  the  town  certainly 
had  to  suffer  much.  Occasionally,  however,  it  succeeded  in  beating  off 
an  enemy.  An  instance  occurred  in  1295,  according  to  Henry  of 
Knyghton.  His  story  is  somewhat  as  follows  :  A  certain  English  knight, 
Thomas  de  Turbeville,  having  been  taken  prisoner  by  the  French,  gained 
his  liberty  by  offering  to  betray  the  King  of  England  by  false  infor- 
mation. The  King  of  France  accordingly  gave  him  his  liberty,  and 
gathered  together  a  fleet  of  ships  from  Marseilles  and  Genoa  to  the 
number  of  three  hundred.  These  lay  in  the  Channel  off  Hythe  awaiting 
the  promised  signal  from  Turbeville.  "  But  when,"  says  Knyghton,  "  they 
had  waited  a  long  time,  nor  saw  the  signal,  they  sent,  of  their  own 
wisdom,  five  chosen  galleys  that  they  might  explore  the  land.  But 
one  of  them,  hastening  before  the  others,  touched  ground  near  Hythe, 
hard  by  the  Port  of  Romney.  Seeing  this,  the  English,  who  were  the 
chosen  guardians  of  that  place,  pretended  to  take  to  flight,  and  by  the 
counsell  of  their  leader  drew  off  that  the  enemy  might  land  with  more 
hardihood.     They  then  fled,  followed  by  the  others ;  but  quickly  turning 

'According    to    Jeake's    quotation    from    the      de  cattalo "  which  Jeake  translates  as  "  cattle." 
Domesday,  "  F.  pertinet  ad  D,  non  de  terris  sed  ^  Itinerary,  second  ed.,  vol.  vii. 


194  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

their  faces,  the  others  as  suddenly  turned  their  backs ;  and  they  were 
all  slain  to  the  number  of  240  men  and  their  ship  was  burnt.  Which 
seeing,  the  other  four  galleys  drew  off  to  the  main  fleet — for  they  could 
be  seen  by  our  men.  Nor  did  our  men  dare  to  attack  them,  fearing  the 
great  multitude."-^ 

Towards  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  Courtenay,  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  built  the  present  Saltwood  Castle  and  took  up 
his  abode  near  his  trembling  burgesses  of  Hythe.  Both  this  town  and 
Romney  were  continually  engaged  in  propitiating  this  terrible  personage 
— they  usually  sent  him  "porpuses."  Courtenay  seems  to  have  been  a 
haughty  man  whom  it  was  necessary  to  propitiate.  He  was  one  of  the 
two  judges  before  whom  Wickliffe  was  tried  at  Westminster.  Curiously 
enough,  however,  he  was  vastly  popular  with  the  citizens  of  London, 
who  at  that  abortive  function  attempted  to  immolate  both  Wickliffe 
and  his  protector  John  of  Gaunt. 

Courtenay,  however,  was  not  vastly  popular  in  the  country  round 
Saltwood,  if  we  may  believe  an  anecdote  of  Lambard's.  "  Hear,  I  pray 
you,"  says  he,  "  a  word  or  twain  of  the  honourable  (or  rather  the  Ponti- 
ficall)  dealing  of  William  Courteney,  the  Archbishop  and  Amplifier  of 
the  Castle  :  who,  taking  offence  that  certain  poor  men  (his  Tenants  of 
the  Manor  of  Wingham)  had  brought  him  rent,  littar  and  hay  to  Canter- 
bury, not  openly  in  Carts  for  his  Gloria  as  they  were  accustomed,  but 
closelie  in   sacks  upon  their  horses,   as  their  abilitie  would  suffer,   cited 

^  De  proditione  Thomce  Turbevyl,  A.D.  1295. —  bant  fugam,  et  consilio  ducis  eorundem  retraxer- 

"  Rex  autem  Francias  conductis  navibus  interim  unt  se  ut  frequentius  hostes  ad  terram  allicerent. 

multis  de  Marsilio,  scilicet  et  de  Gene,  ita  quod  lUis   itaque  fugientibus   ab   aliis   insecutis ;   sed 

aliquando  viderentur  plusquam  CCC  naves  mag-  facies  cito  convertentibus,  mox  et  alii  terga  ver- 

nje,  signum  expectantes  quod  promissum  expec-  terunt,  et  caesi  sunt  omnes,  scilicet  CCXL  viri  et 

terant.      Cumque    mansissent    diu    nee    signum  navis  eorum  combusta  est.    Quod  videntes  alii  nil 

vidissent,  miserunt  ex  consilio  proprio  v  galleas  galias  retraxerunt  se  ad  magnam  classem,  poter- 

electas   ut   terram   explorarent.     At   una  earum  ant  enim  videri  a  nostris.     Nee  tamen  audebant 

prae   ceteris   festinans,   applicuit    apud    Hydam,  cum  eis  congredi  marinarii  nostri,  timentes  multi- 

juxta  portum  de  Rumonal.     Quod  videntes  An-  tudinem  magnam."— Henry  Knyghton,  De  Even- 

glici  qui  ibidem  fuerunt  custodes  deputati,  simula-  tibus  Angliaa  (Twysdyen's  Script,  x.) 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  195 

them  to  this  his  castle  of  Saltwood,  and  there,  after  he  had  shewed  himself 
{Adria  iracundiorem)  as  hot  as  a  toste,  he  first  bound  them  by  oath  to 
obey  his  own  ordinance,  and  then  injoyned  them,  for  penance  that  they 
should  each  one  march  leasurely  after  the  procession,  bareheaded  with  a 
sack  of  hey  (or  straw)  on  his  shoulder,  open  at  the  mouth,  so  as  the  stuff 
might  appear,  hanging  out  of  the  bag,  to  all  beholders. 

"  Now  I  beseech  you,  what  was  it  else  for  this  Proud  Prelate  thus  to 
insult  over  simple  men  for  so  small  a  fault  (or  rather  for  no  fault  at  all) 
but  Lauroleam  in  Mustaceis  queerer e  ?  " 

Hythe,  however,  if  it  was  a  little  less  of  a  mere  local  port  than 
Romney,  had  an  even  less  prominent  share  in  the  making  of  national 
history.  The  neighbourhood  had,  of  course,  its  visits  from  royal  per- 
sonages. Thus  Edward  II.  certainly  visited  Saltwood,  Henry  VIII. 
came  to  Sandgate,  Elizabeth  ^  was  at  Westenhanger.  Elizabeth  conferred 
a  mayor  on  the  town  of  Hythe  and  gave  some  assistance  to  the  attempts 
that  the  townsmen  were  making  to  keep  their  haven  scoured.  She  did 
nothing,  however,  for  poor  Folkestone,  which,  alone  and  unaided,  has 
nevertheless  been  more  successful  in  retaining  its  harbour. 

In  Parliamentary  days,  both  towns,  as  far  as  their  corporations 
were  concerned,  were  sullenly  opposed  to  the  principles  and  acts  of 
the  Revolution.  Hythe  was  one  of  the  towns  of  Kent  which  incurred 
the  wrath  of  the  Long  Parliament,  and  which  had  to  pay  the  rather 
serious  costs  of  the  commission  sent  into  the  county  to  appre- 
hend the  "ill  -  affected  persons  within  the  county  who  are  now  en- 
deavouring to  disperse  rumours  to  the  scandal  of  Parliament,  .  .  .  the 
further  to  extend  their  malitious  designs."  These  persons  were  so  effectu- 
ally weeded  out  of  the  corporations  that  on  the  Restoration  it  was  necessary 
to  repeat  the  manoeuvre. 

1  Queen  Victoria  visited  Folkestone  in  1855  pier  uttered  its  twenty-one  complimentary  bangs 

and  was   received,   at  the   shortest   possible   of  with  remarkable  enthusiasm,"  and  that  one  "dirty 

notices,  with  frenzied  loyalty.    One  reads  in  the  hovel "  on  the  road  to  Shorncliffe  "  was  quilted 

contemporary  accounts  that  "  the  one  gun  on  the  over  with  a  patchwork  of  handkerchiefs." 


196  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

Hythe  seems  to  have  been,  of  all  the  principal  ports,  the  one  which 
latterly  least  felt  the  heavy  hand  of  fate.  From  the  time  of  recovery  from 
the  conflagration,  it  remained  uninterruptedly,  if  not  egregiously,  prosper- 
ous. It  lost  its  harbour  so  gradually  that  it  was  able  to  change  from  a 
sea-port  into  a  market-town  without  any  sudden  ruin  of  those  who  had 
business  on  the  great  waters.  Even  in  Leland's  day  when,  "  by  the 
Bankinge  of  Woose  and  great  casting  up  of  Shyngel  the  Se  ys  sum- 
tyme  a  Quarter,  sumtyme  Dim,  a  Myle  fro  the  old  Shore,"  he  could 
write:  "The  Havyn  is  a  pretty  Rode  and  liith  meatly  strayt  for 
Passage  out  of  Boleyn.  Yt  creketh  yn  so  by  the  Shore  a  long  and 
is  so  bakked  fro  the  mayn  Se  with  casting  of  Shinggil,  that  smaul 
shippes  may  cum  up  a  lang  Myle  toward  Folkestan  as  yn  a  sure 
Gut."  ^  Even  later  it  seems  to  have  retained  something  of  a  harbour, 
if  the  map  in  Philipot's  '  Villare  Cantium '  may  be  believed.  This, 
which  was  prepared  in  1659,  "by  the  travayle  of  Philip  Symonson 
of  Rochester,  gent,"  represents  Hythe  as  standing  in  the  head  of  a  Y 
formed  by  two  little  rivers  which  at  their  mouths  unite  to  form  an 
apparently  spacious  harbour.  This  is  probably  no  more  than  a 
product  of  the  imagination.^  The  place  of  its  harbour  was  taken  by  a 
sufficient  Stade,  and  the  nature  of  its  shore  was  such  that  comparatively 
large  vessels  could  beach  themselves  and  unload  without  much  difficulty. 
Indeed  one  may  even  now  see  colliers  run  ashore,  have  their  cargoes 
unloaded  into  carts,  and  get  afloat  again  by  the  next  tide.  The  town 
flourished  exceedingly  during  the  days  of  its  peculiar  "free-traders," 
and  when  they  succumbed  to  the  national  adoption  of  its  local  principles, 
their  place  was  taken  by  the  frequenters  of  the  School  of  Musketry,  which 
still  makes  Hythe  one  of  the  most  important  military  places  of  the  empire. 

'  Leland's    Itinerary,  second  ed.,  vol.  vii.  pp.  mare  longius  excluditur." — Britannia,  ed.  1586. 
131,  132.     Camden  says  :  "  Hith  .  .   .  e  qui n que  ^  According   to   the    most    credible  accounts, 

portibus  unus,   unde  et  illud  nomen  assumpsit,  the  harbour    had    entirely   disappeared    by  the 

quod  Saxonibus  portum  sonat ;  scilicet  nunc  vix  year   1634,  when  it  was  "absolutely  starved  or 

nomen  illud  truatur,  ob  arenas  accumulatas,  quibus  stopped  up." 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  197 

"Humble  Folkestone"  is  to-day  proud  Folkestone,  its  story  having 
been  very  similar  to  that  of  Hythe,  though  it  saw  rather  more  of  later 
historic  happenings.  It  certainly  trembled  more  in  times  of  invasion. 
In  Armada  year  it  blocked  up  all  its  roads  with  balks  of  timber 
and  so  on.  In  1602  six  Spanish  galleys  were  seen  apparently  making 
for  the  town,  but  within  a  few  hours  the  queen's  ships  dispersed  them, 
and  Folkestone  learnt,  to  its  relief  perhaps,  that  no  attack  had  been 
meditated.  Three  of  the  galley  -  slaves  who  swam  ashore  gave  the 
information  that  the  galleys  had  merely  mistaken  Folkestone  for  the 
town  of  Sluys,  to  which  they  were  bound.  The  Spaniards  were  never 
famous  navigators. 

The  town  trembled  again  at  thought  of  Napoleon  lying  at  Boulogne, 
over  against  them.  The  townsmen  may  also  have  seen  the  gun-flashes, 
must  certainly  have  heard  the  reports  of  cannon,  when  Nelson  made 
his  abortive  attack  on  the  French  flotilla.  At  that  date  again  the  town 
blocked  up  its  narrow  streets  with  timber  and  paving-stones,  thus  setting 
the  French,  who  never  came,  an  example  for  the  guerre  des  barricades. 
The  mayor  issued  an  order  commanding  every  inhabitant  who  possessed 
a  defensive  or  offensive  weapon  "  to  bring  all  they  possess,  whether 
sword  pr  gun  or  spade  or  shovel,"  for  the  resistance  to  Napoleon  the 
Great.  Thus  were  the  troop  in  the  barracks  erected  by  Government 
supplemented  by  those  of  the  mayor  of  Folkestone.  The  panic  spread 
far  into  the  inland  hills.  On  one  Sunday  the  vicar  of  Lyminge  moved 
his  audience  to  unprecedented  tears  by  declaring  that  on  the  following 
Sabbath  his  place  would  be  occupied  by  a  French  priest.  Inasmuch  as 
this  particular  incumbent  was  the  man  who  converted  the  basilica  into 
pigsties,  one  rather  wishes  that  he  had,  before  the  date  of  his  moving 
sermon,  been  replaced  by  some  one  else — French  or  English.  Never- 
theless, although  the  inhabitants  of  the  neighbourhood  shuddered,  wept, 
and  armed  themselves,  they  were  not  (if  we  may  believe  Mr  Mackie, 
the   only   historian   of   Folkestone)  vastly  averse   to   turning   an   honest 


198  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

penny  by  traffic  with  the  Corsican  ogre.  According  to  that  gentleman, 
the  Folkestone  galleys  were  almost  exclusively  employed  in  smuggling 
out  of  England  the  British  guineas  with  which  Napoleon  paid  his 
troops.^ 

Folkestone  at  that  time,  and  for  some  years  before,  had  been  a 
"populous  and  wealthy"  town — that,  at  least,  is  the  title  accorded  to  it 
by  Seymour  in  his  1770  survey  of  Kent;  but  its  visitors  at  that  date 
can  scarcely  have  been  numerous,  for,  save  for  the  Canterbury  carriers, 
its  only  means  of  communication  with  the  outer  land  were  the  "  neat 
post-chaise  and  able  horses  "  of  Mr  James  Bateman  of  the  White  Hart 
Inn.  Perhaps  the  ability  of  the  said  horses  made  up  for  the  small 
number  of  post-chaises  in  the  town.  From  that  time  onwards  Folke- 
stone has  grown — grown  into  a  fashionable  seaside  resort.  Its  harbour, 
which  had  for  centuries  a  hard  struggle  for  existence,  has  grown  secure 
enough  since  becoming  railway  property. 

Happy — if  the  proverb  .be  right — in  having  little  to  do  with  the 
making  of  history  in  the  large,  these  little  towns  worked  out  in  peace 
their  little  lives.  Their  public  story  calling  for  so  little  expenditure  of 
time,  one  has  leisure  the  more  intently  to .  examine  their  private  affairs. 
Fortunately,  as  in  the  cases  of  Romney  and  Rye,  the  municipal  records 
have  been  carefully  preserved — not  so  carefully,  perhaps,  but  still  care- 
fully enough. 

Like  most  towns  of  respectable  age,  Hythe  has  the  reputation  of 
having  once  possessed  a  number  of  churches.  Leland  assigns  four  to 
it  besides  a  "fayr  abbey,"  which,  as  far  as  one  knows,  did  not  exist. 
"  In  the  top  of  the  churchyard,"  he  says,  "  ys  a  fayr  spring  and  ther  by 
mines  of  the  houses  of  office  of  the  abbey."  He  also  gives  the  town 
a  hospital  for  lepers — hard  by  the  church,  which  was  founded  by  a  gentle- 
man, himself  one  of  the  unclean.     The  town  had  also  two  other  hospitals 

'  Mackie,  Folkestone  and  its  Neighbourhood. 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  199 

— St  John's  for  nine,  and  St  Bartholomew's  for  thirteen,  poor  men. 
The  latter  was  founded  by  Hamo,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  who  was  born 
in  the  town.  Hythe  probably  stretched  at  one  time  as  far  as  West 
Hythe,  the  church  of  which  was  probably  one  of  Leland's  four.  It 
must  have  remained  in  a  state  of  preservation  until  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  One  reads,  at  least,  that  in  the  time  of  Henry  VII. 
its  vicar,  Robert  Beverly,  was  buried  in  the  choir;  that  in  1489  William 
Tilley  left  xb.  for  its  repair;  in  1504  John  Knatchbull  vs.  wd.  for  work 
upon  it.  But  in  spite  of  the  expenditure  of  these  sums,  it  is  now  a 
mere  shell,  and  was  probably  little  more  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth.  The 
town  does  not  seem  to  have  contained  any  other  public  buildings  of 
note.  It  consisted — after  the  "conflagration  of  Hythe" — of  one  long 
street  with  a  few  houses  running  up  the  hill ;  the  buildings  are  usually 
called  "fayr,"  but  that  means  excessively  little.  Its  sanitary  state  was 
phenomenally  bad  —  even  for  a  town  built  in  the  middle  ages.  One 
may  read  the  pleasant  book  by  Mr  Tighe  Hopkins,^  and  acquire  a  good 
knowledge  of  how  unhealthily  a  collection  of  human  beings  can  live,  but 
the  perusal  of  the  Hythe  reports  of  1409  reveals  a  state  of  things  almost 
incredible.  One  reads  again  and  again  that  the  street  opposite  the  house 
of  So-and-so  is  blocked  up  "per  skaldynge  de  hogges,"  and  this  quotable 
is  the  mildest  of  the  items.  Other  streets  were  blocked  up  with  worse 
things.  "The  Inquisition  of  1409,"  says  Mr  Riley, ^  "depicts  the  town 
as  being  in  a  state  of  such  utter  filth  and  squalor  that  we  are  not  at  all 
surprised  to  learn  from  the  'Release'  by  Henry  V.  .  .  .  that  the  place 
was  devastated  by  pestilence  in  his  reign." 

To  such  a  pitch  of  wretchedness  had  the  Port  attained  that  the 
townsmen  petitioned  to  be  allowed  to  leave  the  town  in  a  body.  This 
happened  in  141 4,  immediately  after  the  great  fire.  The  fire  is  placed 
by  different  writers  in  different  reigns.  Leland  times  it,  as  we  have 
seen,  and  most  accounts  place  it,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  IV.      This  is 

1  An  Idler  in  Old  France.  ^  Hist.  Man.  Comm.,  Report  5. 


200  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

not  impossible,  but  the  release  itself  was  granted  in  the  second  of 
Henry  V.  It  is  curious,  however,  to  find  that,  in  spite  of  the  release^ 
from  ship-service,  the  town  hired  from  Dover  a  ship  to  accompany  the 
king  when  he  crossed  the  seas  on  his  way  to  Agincourt.  This  fact  is 
vouched  for  in  a  curious  way.  In  the  accounts  of  1419  there  is  recorded 
a  payment  to  a  man  who  had  defrayed  the  costs  of  ship  and  men.  He 
had  then  received  from  the  town  a  bad  "gold  farthing,"  and  now,  four 
years  afterwards,  he  was  repaid  that  large  sum.  The  hiring  of  the 
ship  cost  6  marks. 

We  may  thus  imagine  that  Hythe  lost  its  houses  and  its  ships  by 
fire,  and  its  men  by  pestilence.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  in  the  year 
following  that  of  the  release  Archbishop  Chichele  granted  —  or  rather 
rented  for  a  term  —  to  the  corporation  the  right  to  elect  a  bailiff  of 
their  own  choosing.  It  is  probable  that  the  moneys  that  the  arch- 
bishop's men  collected  were  hardly  worth  the  having.  The  administra- 
tion of  the  Primate  seems  to  have  weighed  doubly  hard  on  the  place. 
From  the  inquisition  of  1409 — the  one  that  reveals  the  miserable  state 
of  the  town — we  learn  that  no  improvements  in  the  roads  or  harbour 
could  be  made  without  the  sanction  of  his  Grace,  and  this  was  extremely 
hard  to  obtain.  When  a  "skaldynge  de  hogges"  was  to  be  removed, 
or  a  drain  to  be  constructed  to  carry  off  the  surface-water,  it  became 
necessary  to  bribe  the  archbishop  with  a  porpoise  or  a  salmon.  Perhaps, 
too,  the  "  2od."  which  was  given  to  his  Grace's  steward  "  that  he  might 
utter  to  our  lord  good  words  for  this  town,"  was  spent  with  a  like  purpose. 
But  with  a  bailiff  of  its  own  these  things  could  be  better  contrived,  and 
from  the  date  of  the  release  the  town  began  to  prosper  again.  The  fire, 
at  least,  swept  away  the  house -high  piles  of  dung  without  leave  of  his 
Grace  or  of  his  Grace's  steward.  The  calamity,  like  so  many  others — 
like  the  Fire  of  London — was  a  blessing  in  disguise. 

The   history   of  the    corporation   of   Hythe    may   be    considered   as 

1  The  release  was  from  five  years'  ship-service. 


SANDGATE. 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  201 

generally  typical  of  that  of  most  of  the  Ports.  According  to  Domesday 
Book,  as  we  have  seen,  the  231  burgesses  (225  in  the  manor  of 
Saltwood,  and  the  six  that,  in  the  manor  of  Sandton,  were  subject  to 
the  extinct  Monastery  of  Lyminge),  all  belonged  to  Christ  Church, 
Canterbury,  of  which  later  the  archbishops  were  titular  chiefs.  In 
the  reign  of  Henry  II.,  it  is  true,  the  manor  of  Saltwood  fell  to  or 
was  seized  by  the  king.  Lambarde's  account  of  the  forfeiture  is  as 
follows  :  "  Before  such  time  as  this  castle  came  to  the  hands  of  these 
archbishops,  it  was  of  the  possession  of  Henry  of  Essex,  who  held  it  of 
the  See  of  Canterbury,  and,  being  accused  of  Treason  by  Robert  of 
Mountforde,  for  throwing  away  the  King's  standard  and  cowardly  flight 
at  a  fight  in  Wales,  to  the  great  hazard  of  King  Henry  the  second, 
being  then  in  person  thereat,  he  offered  to  defend  it  by  his  boday 
against  Robert  of  Mountford  and  was  by  him  vanquished  in  the  combate 
and  left  for  ded  :  But  the  Monks  of  Reading  took  him  up  and  both 
recovered  him  to  life  and  received  him  into  their  Order,  exchanging  the 
Naturall  death  for  that  time  to  a  Civill." 

It  is  curious  to  note  that  a  De  Montfort  was  the  accuser  in  this  matter, 
for  it  was  a  De  Montfort  who  forfeited  the  castle  for  his  non-adherence 
to  Henry  I.  It  is  possible  that  De  Montfort  had  in  view  the  recovery 
of  his  ancestral  domains.  If  he  did,  he  was  disappointed,  for  the  king 
retained  the  castle  in  his  own  hands.  This  proceeding  —  manifestly 
unjust — was  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  quarrel  between  Henry  II. 
and  St  Thomas  of  Canterbury.^  The  contrition  of  Henry  after  the 
martyrdom  of  that  sturdy  upholder  of  the   Church's  rights   did  not  lead 

1  Matthew   Paris  quotes   a  writ  of  Henry   II.  tribus  mensibus  antequam  exirent  Anglia  :  faci- 

which  runs  as  follows  :    "  Sciatis  quod  Thomas  atisque   venire    coram    vobis,   de    melioribus    et 

Cant.  Episcopus   mens   pacem   mecum   fecit  ad  antiquioribus  militibus  de  honore  de  Saltwood, 

voluntatem    meam,    et    ideo    pr»cipio    tibi    [the  et    eorum    juramento   faciatis    inquiri,   quid    ibi 

King's  son,  Henry],  ut  ipse  et  omnes  sui  pacem  habetur    de    feodo    Archiepiscopatus    Cant,    et 

habeant,  et  faciatis  ei  habere  et  suis,  omnes  res  quod  recognitum  fuerit  esse  de  feodo  ipsius,  ipsi 

suas,  bene,  in  pace  et  honorifice,  sicut  habuerunt  faciatis  habere." 


202  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

him  to  restore  the  manor  to  the  Church.  It  remained  in  the  hands  of 
the  Crown  until  the  time  of  John,  when  it  once  again  became  the  prop- 
erty of  the  archbishops.  What  form  the  corporation  took  under  the 
king's  governance  cannot  be  discovered.  Curiously  enough,  an  ordinance 
of  the  30th  Edward  III.  is  addressed  to  the  mayor  and  jurats  of  the 
town,  but  the  style  is  probably  only  a  clerical  slip. 

We  have  seen  that  the  burgesses  of  Romney  attempted  to  bribe 
Richard  III.  into  conferring  a  bailiffship  of  its  own  upon  their  town: 
those  of  Hythe  were  bolder,  more  contumacious.  They  occasionally 
made  the  place  unpleasant  for  an  archiepiscopal  bailiff;  they  sometimes 
forced  the  archbishops  for  the  time  being  to  grant  them  the  lease  of 
a  bailiff's  interest,  sometimes  even  prescriptively  elected  bailiffs  obnoxious 
to  their  "  neyghbare  "  of  Saltwood.  At  least  one  gathers  as  much  from  a 
passage  in  a  letter  from  Archbishop  Morton  to  the  jurats  :  "  The  office 
of  the  Baillewyk  of  Hythe  hath  be  unrighteously  occupied  a  long  season 
time  passed  to  the  displeasure  of  God  and  farre  from  due  order  and 
good  rule  as  ye  knowe  well."  Morton  appoints  to  the  Bailiwick  a 
certain  John  Mitchel,  and  adds,  "  I  trust  he  wolle  so  behave  hymself 
in  the  exercising  of  the  same  that  God  shal  be  pleased  and  every  manne 
reasonable  contented  withe  hym."  The  town,  however,  held  the  lease 
of  the  Bailiwick  almost  continuously  up  till  the  time  of  Archbishop 
Cranmer.  This  reformer  sold  the  jurats  a  ninety- nine  years'  lease  of 
the  privilege.  Henry  VIII.,  however,  cast  longing  eyes  upon  the  manor 
of  Saltwood,  a  proceeding  which  ensured  its  surrender  to  the  Crown. 
Then  the  lease  was  revoked  and  the  poor  townsmen  fell  into  the  hands 
of  King  Stork,  who  behaved  more  ill  than  his  predecessors.  In  1575, 
however,  at  last  Elizabeth  granted  them  an  elective  mayoralty. 

At  the  time  of  this  queen's  survey  the  town  boasted,  besides  the 
mayor  and  the  twelve  jurats  and  twenty-four  commoners,  a  "customer, 
a  controller,  and  a  searcher,  one  hundred  and  twenty  -  two  inhabited 
houses,   two  creeks  and  landing-places,   the  one  called   the    Haven,   the 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  203 

other  the  Stade."  The  memory  of  the  latter  is  still  preserved  in  the 
name  Stade  Street.  The  navy  of  the  port  is  catalogued  as  follows : 
"17  tramellers  of  5  tunne,  seven  shoters  of  fifteen,  three  crayers  of 
thirty  and  four  of  forty."  The  number  of  persons  employed  in  the 
fishery  reached   162. 

Of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  inhabitants  one  catches  glimpses 
in  the  records.  One  knows  that  once  a  -  year,  or  more  frequently,  if 
occasion  demanded,  they  held  on  the  sea -shore  Inquisitions  touching 
fishery  matters ;  but,  as  is  natural  perhaps,  the  records  preserve  most 
frequently  accounts  of  the  misdoings  of  individual  townsmen. 

"  The  evil  that  men  do  lives  after  them, 
The  good  is  oft  interred  with  their  bones." 

Thus  one  reads  that  in  1422  there  was  a  large  colony  of  Frenchmen 
who  refused  to  swear  allegiance  to  the  king,  and  who  occasionally 
broke  his  peace.  Licensing  matters,  too,  were  a  continual  source  of 
trouble,  the  ladies  being  the  worst  offenders  in  the  matter.  One  reads 
constantly  of  breweresses  who  broke  the  law  and  sometimes  did  not 
respect  the  persons  of  the  law's  officers.  They  also  persisted  in  selling 
ale  by  the  cup — a  serious  offence,  Edwardo  Quarto  rege.  Incidentally 
one  learns  from  a  paper  of  the  Hundred  Court  of  the  23rd  Henry  VI. 
that  the  common  rhyme  errs  which  says — 

"  Hops  and  turkeys,  carp  and  beer, 
Came  into  England  all  in  one  year," — 

that  year  being  1530.  For  in  the  paper  one  reads  of  the  prosecution 
of  a  breweress  for  selling  "cervisia  et  bere" — ale  and  beer.  In  the 
same  return  is  an  account  of  a  certain  wicked  William  Chaumberlyn, 
who  was  "a  common  hasedoure  [gambler],  .  .  .  keeping  a  house 
suspected  for  men  and  women,  sitting  up  late  at  night,  and  for  keeping 
one  ferrett  for  hunting,  against  the  statute." 

If  sitting  up  late  in  the  Hythe  of  1445   was  punishable,   rising  too 


204  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

early  seems  to  have  been  deemed  even  more  pernicious ;  for  at  an 
Inquisition  "held  on  the  sea-shore,"  on  the  28th  June  1581,  one  Matthew 
Luce — who,  according  to  one  interpretation  of  the  name,  should  have 
loved  a  bed — proved  that  he  preferred  the  reading  not  Shakespeare's, 
by  being  presented  and  fined  for  casting  his  nets  into  the  water 
before  sunrise.  One  wishes  that  one's  rulers  to-day  set  their  faces 
as  sternly  against  undue  competition.  At  the  same  session  two  other 
men,  one  of  them  a  butcher,  were  fined  for  "  carrying  off  a  salmon  out 
of  the  net  of  John  Sutton  of  Folkestone."  Salmon,  not  then,  as  now, 
unknown  in  the  waters  of  Hythe,  were  sufficiently  rare  to  be  deemed 
literally  fish  fit  for  a  king.  They  were  reserved  by  the  corpora- 
tion as  presents  to  the  powers  in  the  land,  being  preferred  even 
to  the  more  common  "  porpus."  The  "  porpus "  was  neverthe- 
less much  esteemed,  for  we  read  that  the  towns  of  Lydd,  Romney, 
and  Hythe  propitiated  the  redoubtable  Jack  Cade  by  gifts  of 
"  craspisces." 

To  turn  from  the  affairs  of  the  corporation  and  its  evil-doers  to 
those  of  the  churchwardens  and  the  pious  contributors  to  their  revenue. 
One  may  gain  a  very  good  insight  into  the  religious  state  of  the 
town  from  the  accounts  kept  during  a  long  series  of  years.  Thus 
for  1412-13  the  income  from  the  sale  of  indulgences  amounted  to 
v\li.  vns.  nd.  —  a  very  respectable  total  when  added  to  those  from 
legacies  and  other  sources.  Some  of  the  items  of  expenditure,  too,  are 
worth  looking  at : — 

"In      primis,       In      emendatione      magni      calicis,      videlicet      in 
rivettynge \\\\d." 

The  masons,  too,  who  worked  upon  the  fabric  were  comforted  with 
frequent  twopennyworths  of  beer,  as  well  as  bread  and  meat.  The 
churchwardens'  accounts  indeed  bring  the  circumstances  of  the  time 
very    close    to    one,    and    one    understands    better,    after    a    perusal    of 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  205 

them,  why  it  was  that  the  decorative  arts  and  crafts  flourished  in 
these  times  as  they  never  have  since,  nor  in  all  probability  ever 
will  again. 

To  change  the  subject  from  that  of  the  expenditure  of  the  arts  of 
peace  to  that  of  the  costs  of  the  arts  of  war,  one  has  only  to  travel 
as  far  as  Sandgate,  a  mile  or  so.  The  roads  from  the  coast  into  the 
uplands  of  this  part  seem  to  have  always  been  regarded  as  worthy 
of  especial  protection.  In  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  the 
establishment  of  a  watch  was  deemed  sufficient.  Thus  in  the  time 
of  Edward  III.  the  watchmen  provided  by  Denge  and  Romney  Marshes 
numbered  twelve,  those  at  Brodhull  —  presumably  Dymchurch  —  nine, 
and  those  of  Sea- Brook  and  Sandgate  sixteen.  The  duty  of  providing 
these  men  was  laid  on  the  adjoining  villages,  very  much  as  certain 
towns  were  made  contributors  to  their  adjacent  ports.  Henry  VIII., 
however,  supplemented  these  watches  by  the  string  of  castles  which 
he  built  along  the  coast  -  line  between  Sandown  and  Seaford.  He 
seems  to  have  taken  a  certain  amount  of  trouble  over  the  sites  of 
these  fortresses.  According  to  Hall's  Chronicle,  "  When  invasions 
by  the  French  and  Germans  was  feared,  1539,  ...  his  Majesty, 
without  any  delay,  took  very  laborious  and  painful  journeys  towards 
the  sea  -  coasts."  In  one  of  these  he  is  said  to  have  come  to 
Sandgate.  According  to  the  following  item  in  the  accounts  of  Folke- 
stone corporation,  he  visited  the  neighbourhood  again  four  years 
afterwards  : — 

"  For  wine  given  to  the  company  coming  with  the  King's  Grace 
to  the  town  of  Folkestone  upon  Tuesday,  2nd  day  of  May 
anno  regni  Henrici  Octavi  xxxiiii° .         .         .         xxvii^.  od.  ob." 

From  this  it  would  seem  that  Henry  first  visited  the  place  in  1539  to 
choose  a  site  for  his  castle,  and  returned  to  inspect  it  after  its  com- 
pletion.     It  took    a    little    more    than    a    year    to    build,    being   begun    in 


206  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

1539  and  finished  in  1540.  A  manuscript  in  the  Harleian  Collection^ 
gives  the  expenditure  on  the  building,  descending  to  the  minutest 
particulars.  One  learns  that  the  eight  small  vanes  on  the  towers  cost 
5s.  apiece,  the  great  one  los.,  the  lock  of  the  outer  gate  13s.  4d.,  that 
there  were  employed  147,000  bricks  at  4s.  4d.  per  1000,  and  so  on. 
The  stone,  with  which  principally  the  castle  was  built,  was  brought 
by  boat  from  the  Folkestone  quarries.  According  to  a  writer  in  the 
'  Archccologia  Cantiana,'  a  fisherman  named  Young  had  been  rewarded 
by  the  king  for  the  invention  of  a  new  method  of  tide-floating  stone. 
This  was  tried  at  Sandgate,  but  seems  to  have  proved — there  at  least 
— unprofitable. 

In  1534  we  read  that  sea-coal  was  brought  to  Hythe  by  the  "St 
Nycolas  of  Sowolde"  and  the  "John  of  Downwithe,"  in  1540  by 
another  Dunwich  ship.  How  the  coal  came  from  the  mines  to  South- 
wold  and  the  other  port  is  not  explained.  Both  the  Norfolk  towns 
were,  however,  intimately  connected  with  the  Five  Ports,  and  their 
vessels  may  possibly  have  been  employed  by  the  town  of  Hythe. 
From  Hythe  the  coal  was  brought  to  the  castle,  where  it  was  sold 
for  a  price  equal  to  about  £'^  per  ton.  The  student  of  such  matters 
may  get  a  very  fair  notion  of  the  tools  used  by  the  artificers  in 
these  days.  One  reads  of  "takke-hooks  for  flesshe,"  which  are  fero- 
cious in  name,  and  of  ".skimers  for  the  plumber,"  and  so  on. 

The  finished  castle  seems  never  to  have  seen  any  warlike  service, 
though  Defoe  mentions  in  his  '  Tour '  that  it  was  of  service  to  the 
fishermen,  who,  when  pursued  by  the  French,  ran  in  under  the  shelter 
of  its  guns.  It  was  visited,  as  I  have  said,  by  Henry  VIII.,  and  in 
1573  Elizabeth  lunched  there.  In  the  last  century  they  were  accustomed 
to  show  the  bed  in  which  she  slept.  It  was  said  to  have  been  a  very 
magnificent  affair ;  but,  unfortunately  for  its  authenticity,  history  asserts 
that    Elizabeth    passed    the   night    following   her    visit    to    Sandgate    at 

1  Hai-l.  MS.  Colin.,  1647-1651. 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  207 

Dover.     She  may,   however,   as   is  asserted  by  a  loyal  upholder  of  the 
little  town,  have  had  an  afternoon  nap  in  its  recesses. 

Very  shortly  before,  the  Castle  had  been  connected  with  a  rather 
pitiful   story.      The   queen's    Serjeant- Porter   had   committed    the  grave 
indiscretion  of  secretly  marrying  the   Lady   Mary   Grey,  sister  of  Lady 
Jane  of  unhappy  memory.      Elizabeth  could  not  brook  the  union  of  a 
mere  gentleman -domestic  with   a  lady  so  nearly   related  to    her   august 
self. .     The    unfortunate    Serjeant  -  Porter    was    thrown    into    prison    for 
a    number   of  years,    several    of   which    he   passed    in    Sandgate    Castle, 
whilst    the    equally    unfortunate    Lady    Mary    was    imprisoned    in    the 
house    of    Sir    Thomas    Gresham.      Gresham    was    forced,    against    his 
will,    to     treat    her    with    some    barbarity.       But    neither    of    the    pair 
showed    any    contrition,    for   in    1570   the    husband    wrote   to    the    queen 
petitioning    her   to    allow   him    to    return    and    live    with    his    wife,    "as 
the   laws   of   God   direct."     Such   a   letter,    however,    was   not   likely    to 
bring   him   any  relief — indeed   his   prison   was   made   so   hard   for   him 
that    within    six    months    he  was  dead.      His  wife,   who    is   described    as 
being    a    tiny  and    childlike    personage,    showed   a   proper    spirit    of   re- 
sentment  for   what   was    practically   the   murder   of   her   husband.     She 
insisted   on   being   called   by   his   name,    whereas   before   she    had   been 
content  to  pass  as   Lady  Mary  Grey.     Sir  Thomas  Gresham  petitioned 
in   vain   for  permission    to    allow  her  to  wear  mourning.      It    is    curious 
to  consider  that  had  not  both  the  sisters  of   Lady  Jane   Grey  married 
below  them,   the  course    of   English   history  might  have  been  changed. 
There  was,  at  least,  a  possibility  that  Elizabeth  would   have  designated 
the  elder  as  her  successor. 

As  the  centuries  go  on  the  records  of  Hythe  grow  less,  those  of 
Folkestone  more,  full  of  human  interest.  The  two  sets  overlap,  in  the 
sixteenth  century  —  indeed  one  hears  very  little  of  Folkestone  before 
then.  As  I  have  said,  the  corporation  had  hardly  any  income — hardly 
any  source   of  income   save   a   sort   of  royalty  on  the  proceeds   of  the 


2o8  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

fishery  —  a  royalty  which  was  paid  in  kind.  Elizabeth  granted  the 
place  a  mayor,  and  it  is  shortly  after  this  granting  that  the  town  and 
its  records  begin  to  grow  interesting.  The  Elizabethan  records  show 
that  the  townsmen  borrowed  their  ceremonies  very  directly  from  the 
other  towns.  On  mayoring  day  the  mayor,  jurats,  and  barons  marched 
round  the  town  preceded  by  trumpeters  and  archers,  and  wearing  their 
scarlet  robes ;  the  actual  change  of  mayors  taking  place  apparently  in 
the  parish  churchyard.  Afterwards  they  dined  together  in  public  at 
their  own  charges. 

Although  the  town  was  gratified  by  incorporation,  the  townsmen 
seem  to  have  fought  rather  shy  of  municipal  honours,  and,  in  particular, 
to  have  resented  paying  for  the  mayoring  dinner.  The  full  penalty  of 
recalcitrance  was  never,  as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  discover,  actually 
put  in  force,  offenders  generally  giving  in  before  the  awe  of  threats,  but 
the  early  centuries  of  Folkestone's  municipality  seem  to  have  been 
checkered  by  a  good  many  unpleasantnesses. 

The  mayoring  ceremony  itself  did  not  always  proceed  without  a  hitch. 
Thus  in  1650,  at  the  very  outset  of  the  proceedings,  one  of  the  newly 
elected  jurats  became  contumacious.  The  good  man's  name  was  Medgett, 
and  Dickensian  by  name,  he  was  almost  Dickensian  by  nature.  He 
flatly  refused  to  be  made  a  jurat,  and  exhibited  the  utmost  disrespect 
for  the  mayor  and  his  henchmen.  "  Before  I  come  to  be  jurate  in 
this  towne  you  shall  first  put  my  head  in  the  stockes,"  he  said. 
Perhaps  he  meant  "in  the  pillory."  The  mayor  threatened  him 
with  imprisonment.  "Over  shoes,  over  boots,"  he  answered,  which 
one  may  translate  as  "In  for  a  penny,  in  for  a  pound."  It  is  pleasant 
to  think  of  the  consternation  in  the  churchyard.  The  wise  mayor 
and  the  rather  hot  -  headed  jurats  were  nonplussed.  Their  grey 
beards  wagged  together.  In  the  end  better  counsels  prevailed,  and 
Medgett  consented  to  serve :  his  fine  Xvas  remitted.  Two  or  three 
years    afterwards    he    became    mayor,    and    the    resolution    of    the    town 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  209 

council  is  recorded :  "  All  former  passages  concerning  this  business 
shall  be  forgotten  and  buried  in  oblivion."  So  Medgett  is  forgotten. 
It  is  only  those  among  us  who  grub  in  records  or  read  epitaphs — for 
on  the  foolhardy  jurat's  tombstone  his  services  to  the  town  are 
testified  to — that  know  anything  of  the  thrice-famous  deeds  he  wrought 
in  ancient  days. 

Medgett  disposed  of,  the  mayoring  procession  proceeded  on  its 
course.  But  it  was  not  to  come  to  a  close  without  another  scandalous 
and  untoward  incident ;  for  in  Rendavowe  Street — we  spell  it  "  Rendez- 
vous" to-day — a  prototype  of  Mr  Bumble  became  suddenly  contumacious 
— abusive  indeed.  The  mayor  argued  gravely  and  kindly  with  him. 
He  replied  in  very  nearly  Mr  Bumble's  own  words.  The  mayor 
sorrowfully  told  him  that  his  language  was  incompatible  with  his 
high  office  and  asked  him  to  resign.  He  replied  by  snapping  his 
fingers  in  his  worship's  face,  and,  becoming  physically  violent,  was 
removed. 

The  corporation  seems  to  have  had  a  vast  amount  of  trouble  with 
its  officials.  It  certainly  treated  its  town  clerk  very  badly — was  con- 
tinually fining  him  large  sums  to  be  deducted  from  the  smallest  of 
incomes.  On  one  occasion  a  town  clerk  actually  bolted  and  took  up 
his  residence  in  Hythe,  whither  litigants  and  others  were  forced  to 
follow  him — "  to  their  great  inconvenience." 

The  corporation,  in  fact,  was  vastly  severe — hard  upon  evil-doers. 
It  seems,  however,  to  have  tried  to  do  its  duty.  Thus,  having  peti- 
tioned in  vain  for  a  grant  towards  the  making  of  their  harbour,  the 
entire  corporation  made  a  pilgrimage  to  Canterbury  in  1573,  "to  wait 
upon  the  Queen's  Majesty  for  an  answer  to  the  supplication  that  was 
put  in  to  her  there."  They  expended  v\li.  v\s.  Y\\d.  upon  an  entirely 
unsuccessful  journey.  Nothing  daunted,  they  begged  her  to  visit  the 
town  in  the  course  of  her  progress.  But  although  she  lunched  at 
Sandgate,  she   passed   by  outside    Folkestone.     The   corporation   waited 


210  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

upon  her  on  the  Downs,  but  she  took  no  notice  of  them,  being  engaged 
in  extorting  from  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  a  magnificent  horse 
that  he  had  there. 

The  town  had  the  mortification  of  seeing  the  stone  for  the 
making  of  the  harbour  that  Elizabeth  granted  to  Dover  quarried  in 
Folkestone  quarries.  As  long  as  there  was  any  hope  of  Folkestone's 
being  able  to  build  a  harbour  of  its  own  the  town  refused  to  allow 
its  stone  to  be  exported,  but  in  the  end  they  had  to  resign  themselves, 
and  made  the  best  bargain  they  could.  Nevertheless,  the  corporation 
did  not  slacken  in  its  efforts  to  keep  open  its  harbour  as  it  then 
existed.  It  was  formed  by  mud -banks  at  the  mouth  of  a  little  river 
that  modern  improvements  have  hidden  beneath  the  pavements  of 
the  lower  town.  The  force  of  the  stream,  however,  was  insufficient 
to  keep  the  haven  scoured.  The  deficiency  of  the  river  the  corporation 
attempted  to  supply.  In  1643  it  was  ordered  "that,  at  beat  of  drum, 
or  any  sufficient  warning,  all  and  every  householder  within  the  said 
town  shall  repair  to  the  said  harbour  furnished  with  shovels  or  other 
fitting  or  meet  tools  or  instruments  for  the  cleansing,  scouring,  and 
expulsing  of  the  said  beach  out  of  the  said  haven,"  under  forfeiture 
of  v\d.  It  is  pleasant  to  think  of  the  effect  of  the  "beat  of  drum  or 
any  sufficient  warning "  upon  the  householder  of  the  said  town  to-day. 
One  imagines  that  the  municipality  would  receive  a  comfortable  number 
of  sixpences. 

From  the  order  of  the  same  date  we  learn  that  the  mayor  and 
jurats  "do  hold  it  an  abuse  if  hogs  and  swine  go  about  the  town  with- 
out some  owner  or  his  assigns  to  follow  it." 

Sedulous  for  the  public  weal  of  the  town,  the  corporation  seem  cheer- 
fully to  have  contributed  money  for  the  defence  of  the  kingdom.  Thus 
in  Armada  year  they  paid  the  "special  cess"  towards  the  costs  of  the 
navy,  and  in  1590  "a  cess  is  ordered  towards  the  setting  forth  of  the 
shipping  in  the  great  viage  to  Cales  [Cadiz]  in  Spain,  under  the  conduct 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  211 

of  the  most  valiant  captain  the  Earle  of  Essex,  his  honour,  and  the  Lord 
High  Admiral."  The  cess  was  the  outcome  of  a  "special  commandement," 
and  was  "  not  to  be  drawn  into  a  precedent." 

It  would,  perhaps,  have  been  better  for  the  Crown  if  towns  like 
Folkestone  had  not  proved  so  complacent.  The  payment  of  the  "  special 
cess"  was  drawn  into  a  precedent  —  a  precedent  which  cost  Charles  I. 
his  head.  Hythe  was  a  little  wiser  and  somewhat  wittier  in  these  matters. 
To  one  of  Charles's  demands  it  returned  a  flat  refusal,  and  added  the 
offensive  joke  "that  it  is  not  the  season  for  green  plums."  The  Ex- 
chequer demand  had  been  sealed  with  green  wax. 

During  the  visit  of  the  Earl  of  Essex  to  Folkestone  in  1596 — he 
was  perhaps  trying  to  ensure  the  passing  of  a  later  special  cess  —  a 
small  disaster  overtook  the  town,  for  we  read  in  the  accounts — 

"  Item,  paide  for  a  lanterne  which  was  lost  when  the  Earle  of  Essex 
passed  through  the  town    .......     yi\\d." 

The  town  again  paid  a  special  cess  of  40  marks  towards  the  expenses  of 
the  1619  expedition  against  the  Algerine  pirates. 

The  Corporation  seem  to  have  set  their  faces  as  strongly  against 
evil-doers  as  against  unaccompanied  hogs.  For  instance,  in  1599 
"  Stephen  Smith  and  his  family  were  banished  from  the  town  for  being 
lewd  persons  and  refraining  from  church."  If  they  returned  they  were  to 
be  whipped  at  the  cart's  tail  and  again  ejected  from  the  place.  Those 
were  the  wicked ;  the  poor  seem  to  have  been  in  almost  as  bad  a  case. 
These,  for  instance,  were  all  the  worldly  goods  of  William  Wilson,  who 
died  in  1599  :  "  A  badde  fether  bedde,  a  badde  fether  pillow,  3  sheettes,  a 
badde  coverlet,  2  pewter  dishes,  and  one  old  kettle."  One  feels  sorry 
for  poor  Wilson,  who  died  so  poor  at  the  end  of  so  rich  a  century  ;  per- 
haps, could  he  have  lived  on  into  the  next,  he  might  have  added  a  few 
more  articles  of  furniture  to  his  scanty  array — which,  by  the  bye,  the  town 
sold  to  a  fisherman  for  xivj.  6d. 


212  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

Whilst  the  corporation  was  careful  of  the  morals  of  the  town,  it  did 
not  neglect  to  provide  occasional  refreshment  and  amusement  for  the  in- 
habitants.    Thus  we  read  : — 

"  Paid  for  beer  when  the  late  Queen's  funeral  was  solemnised     ,     2s." 

There  were  dramatic  amusements  too.  In  1569  the  "Queen's 
players  "  visited  the  town,  receiving  iii^.  ivd.  for  the  entertainment  they 
provided.  Shortly  afterwards  came  "the  Lord  Worster's  men,"  who 
were  paid  no  more  than  i^.  vmd. — one  quarter  of  a  solicitor's  fee.  It 
has  been  argued  that,  inasmuch  as  players  came  to  Folkestone,  as 
Shakespeare  was  a  player,  as  Shakespeare  had  undoubtedly  seen  Shakes- 
peare's Cliff,  therefore  Shakespeare  played  before  the  mayor  and  jurats  of 
Folkestone.  Besides,  as  some  one  once  said  to  me,  since  he  certainly 
stood  on  the  top  of  the  cliff,  he  must  have  been  journeying  between 
Folkestone  and  Dover  or  between  Dover  and  Folkestone.  Perhaps  he 
did  come,  perhaps  he  did  play — perhaps  he  played  "  Hamlet."  I  wonder, 
if  he  did,  what  the  mayor  thought  of  the  play.  Perhaps  his  worship 
interrupted,  as  did  the  citizen  and  his  wife,  the  course  of  the  play  called 
the  "  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle."  If  so,  one  wonders  whether  Shakes- 
peare as  patiently  supported  the  interruptions  as  did  Goodman  Boy  with 
his  "  Thus  much  for  what  we  do,  but  for  Ralph's  part  you  must  answer 
for  yourself."  One  wonders,  too,  what  was  Shakespeare's  share  of 
the  \s.  vmd. 

For  the  rest,  Folkestone  produced  besides  its  mayors  one  great  man 
— William  Harvey,  the  discoverer  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood.  One 
may  read  his  mother's  epitaph  in  the  church.  One  learns  that  she  was 
"a  goodly,  harmless  woman,  a  chast,  loveing  wife:  a  charitable  quiet 
neighbour,  a  cofortable  friendly  matron :  a  prudent  diligent  huswyfe," 
mother  of  "7  sons  and  2  daughters."  Harvey  was  born  in  1578  and 
died  in   1657. 

Having  written  so  much  of  the  gravity  and  seriousness  of  a  mayor 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  213 

of  Folkestone,  one  may  fittingly  conclude  by  quoting  an  epitaph  on  one 
of  these  tremendous  personages — an  epitaph  which  shows  how  seriously 
they  took  themselves.  John  Pragnell  was  four  times  mayor,  and  for 
sixteen  years  lieutenant  of  Sandgate  Castle,  which  justifies  the  epithet  of 
the  second  line  : — 

"  Underneath  this  stone  doth  lie 
The  representative  of  Majestie. 
Death  is  impartial ;  a  bold  serjeant  he 
T' arrest  a  Portsman  in  his  Mayoraltie. 
A  magistrate  upright  and  truly  just, 
Once  here  chief  ruler,  alas !  now  turn'd  to  dust. 
But  here's  his  glory  :  'Tis  but  a  remove 
From  this  frail  earth,  to  be  enthron'd  above." 


.    q'\ 


Lyminge  Church. 


CHAPTER    XI. 


THE    PORT   OF   HYTHE,   THE   TOWN   OF   FOLKESTONE,   AND 

THE    NEIGHBOURHOOD— <:(?«/«««^^. 


Of  all  the  watering  -  places  on  this  part  of  the  coast,  Hythe  is  the 
pleasantest.  Indeed  it  is  not  until  one  has  travelled  far  to  the  west 
of  Bournemouth,  and  has  come  upon  villages  like  Charmouth,  that  one 
will  find  anything  so  sleepy,  so  comfortable.  This  is  not  because 
Hythe  has  not  been  "opened  up."  All  round  the  little  town  itself  one 
finds  the  laughable  shelters  that  one  calls  houses.  On  the  sea-coast 
there  are  the  ugly  barracks  which  the  'Sixties  and  'Seventies  deemed 
appropriate  for  the  confronting  of  old  Ocean.  Inland  the  later  villa- 
residences,  spread  over  the  hills,  peep  down  upon  the  town  itself  But 
the  floating  population  of  the  place  is  more  solid,  more  stolid,  than  that 
of  places  like    Hastings.      It  argues  a  certain   amount   of  civilisation   in 


THE    HARBOUR,    FOLKESTONE 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  215 

the    frequenters    that    they  have    the    taste   to   prefer   the    tranquIlHty   of 
Hythe  to  the  wilder  joys  of  more  pagan  places. 

The  old  town  itself  is  preserved  after  a  fashion — a  sufficiently  pleasant 
fashion.  One  may  pass  through  its  long,  winding  street  and  remain 
unaware  of  the  tooth-stump  barracks  on  the  sea-shore,  of  the  villas  on 
the  hills.  The  pervading  charm  of  the  town  itself  is  that  of  sleep — 
the  inheritance  of  the  beloved.  One  may  enter  it  never  so  glowing, 
with  the  spur  of  the  sea  air,  the  excitement  of  the  salt  winds,  but  in 
the  little,  grey,  sheltered  streets  one  at  once  falls  into  a  blessed  half 
doze.  One  walks  on  with  half-shut  eyes,  is  pervaded  by  a  sense  of 
indulgence  for  the  follies  of  oneself  and  one's  neighbours.  One  is  back 
in  a  century — some  beatific  century  that  one  cannot  name — when  nothing 
hurried,  nothing  was  passion-worn,  nothing  strove  ;  when  every  one  was 
at  peace  with  his  neighbours,  when  the  greatest  of  crimes  was  that  of 
sitting  up  late  o'  nights.  Perhaps  even,  those  malefactors  were  too  lazy 
to  go  to  bed. 

The  sense  of  leisure  is  enhanced  by  the  narrowness  of  the  long 
street.  Even  if  it  were  not  a  sin,  one  cannot  hasten.  If  one  walks 
rapidly,  one  comes  round  a  sudden  corner  full  butt  against  a  leisured 
person  lounging  in  the  opposite  direction.  If  one  drives  swiftly,  one's 
reproachful  horse  runs  into  a  sleepy  brother.  Then  one  feels  the  hot 
blood  of  confusion  mantling  the  cheek.  One  has  sinned  against  nature 
and  the  spirit  of  the  place.  There  is  nothing  to  hurry  after.  The  very 
trains  behave  seemly.  They  say  that  a  belated  passenger  may  wave 
his  umbrella  at  a  departing  tail  -  lamp  and  the  train  will  return  to  the 
station.  Even  the  tradesmen  of  the  town  remain  comparatively  uncon- 
taminated  by  the  spirit  of  modernity.  The  hapless  class — called  "  visitor  " 
by  natives — escapes  almost  unshorn.  One  may  buy  a  pound  of  butter 
for  quite  a  large  sum  less  than  double  the  elevenpence  of  the  dairy- 
man. The  town  clock,  too,  is  merciful — for  a  clock.  It  ceases  work 
now  and  then ;  time  has  no  value,  no  fears,  for  the  in-dweller  of  Hythe. 


2i6  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

One  grows  indulgent,  as  I  said  —  forgets  to  look  for  monuments. 
Thus  the  few  that  are  to  be  seen  strike  one  with  unwontedly 
pleasurable  emotion.  One  comes  suddenly,  for  instance,  upon  the  so- 
genannter  Smuggler's  Nest,  and  it  seems  phenomenally  interesting.  It 
is,  indeed,  the  most  picturesque  feature  of  the  street,  this  ordinary  little 
cottage  with  an  extraordinary  little  upper  room  standing  out  of  the 
middle  of  its  roof.  It  is  very  dilapidated,  very  tumble  -  down ;  one 
imagines  that  it  must  be  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  "improvers"  of  towns 
and  hamlets.  The  crow's  nest  at  its  summit  is  said  to  have  served  the 
free-traders  as  a  look-out  place,  as  a  signalling  station.  One  does  not 
know  why  they  should  have  selected  the  worst  possible  situation  for 
their  felonious  proceedings  —  a  place  so  noticeable  that  it  can  hardly 
have  escaped  the  observation  of  individuals  even  so  picturesquely  ob- 
tuse as  a  preventive  officer.  But  then,  they  say  that  no  preventive  officer 
dared  show  his  nose  in  the  town  under  the  hill. 

Very  near  the  Smuggler's  Nest  is  the  town  hall,  a  Georgian  edifice 
standing  on  pillars  between  which  the  markets  were  held.  One  passes 
under  the  town  hall  up  a  passage  closed  in  by  high  grey  walls,  turns 
to  the  left,  turns  to  the  right,  and  reaches  the  parish  church,  an  edifice, 
restoration  apart,  that  confers  a  certain  splendour  on  the  whole  town 
and  port.  The  restorations  are  singularly  complete.  Except  for  the 
inspired  completeness  of  plan  of  the  original  builders,  there  is  nothing 
to  show  that  one  is  not  inspecting  a  modern  imitation.  One  is  driven 
to  wonder  why  it  is  that  no  member  of  a  religious  body  seems  able  to 
see  that  worship  in  a  place  that  bears  the  marks  of  a  venerable  age  is 
more  conducive  to  the  wellbeing  of  religion  than  worship  where  noth- 
ing is  to  be  seen  but  the  newness  of  a  plaster-work  cheap  enough  to 
suit  their  purses.  The  older  religious  were  content  to  build  more  slowly, 
but  in  the  end  they  got  better  value  for  their  money,  and  retained  a 
surer  hold  on  the  faiths  of  their  congregations.  Looking  up  at  the 
walls  of  the   choir   from   the   floor   of  the   body   of  the   church,  at   the 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  217 

spring  and  the  soar  of  it,  one  understands  what  it  was  that  opened  the 
purse-strings  of  the  faithful  in  the  old  days. 

The  great  height  and  the  coherence  of  the  decorations,  the  rows 
of  little  marble  columns  of  the  clerestory,  all  combined  to  produce  an 
emotional  feeling.  The  spectacular  effect  of  descending  processions  must 
have  been  altogether  overpowering  in  those  old  days.  Considering  the 
richness  of  it  all,  one  understands  better  what  must  have  been  the  power 
and  the  resources  of  a  capital  member  of  the  Five  Ports  in  the  thirteenth 
century — when  they  were  in  their  glory.  One  understands  it  better  here 
than  in  any  other  building  of  the  Ports ;  for  there  is  neither  church  nor 
castle  elsewhere  in  them  to  equal  it,  to  reach  to  the  edge  of  its  perfection. 

The  body  of  the  church  contains  a  certain  amount  of  earlier  work 
of  one  period  and  another.  There  is  a  late  Norman  arch  in  the  south 
aisle,  and  a  number  of  heavy  pillars  —  defaced  by  ugly  pointing  — 
separate  both  aisles  from  the  chancel.  But  the  body  of  the  church 
has  been  so  roughly  handled  by  successive  generations  of  alterers, 
medieval  and  Victorian,  that  it  is  more  than  difficult  to  tell  where  one 
style  ends  and  another  begins.  There  is,  however,  a  very  pretty  piscina 
in  the  east  wall  of  the  north  transept,  whilst  in  the  north  wall  of  the 
same  part  is  an  ambry.  One  sees  blocked  -  up  doors  and  traces  of 
arches  in  many  parts  of  the  church — indeed  the  whole  building  is  full 
of  unexpected  features  that  rather  confuse  the  searcher  after  dates. 
The  choir  is,  however,  the  chief  thing  worthy  of  note  in  the  place. 
It  stands  for  the  high-water  mark  of  the  work  of  a  particularly  inspired 
period ;  it  is  as  good  work  of  its  kind  as  it  would  be  possible  to  find 
in  this  world.  More  one  can  hardly  ask.  Above  the  choir  steps,  at 
the  very  apex  of  the  wall  above  the  arch,  is  a  peculiar  small  arch, 
pierced  right  through  the  wall  itself.  Most  probably  it  served  to  give 
light  to  those  passing  through  the  passage  from  the  rood-loft  to  the 
southern  part  of  the  clerestory  passage.  Beneath  the  choir,  in  the  crypt 
which  contains  the  bones,  there  are  a  number  of  arches  of  a  peculiar 


2i8  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

type,  as  far,  at  least,  as  their  mouldings  are  concerned.  They,  too,  ask 
rather  puzzling  questions,  being  apparently  of  later  date  than  the  choir 
that  they  sustain. 

As  regards  the  outside  of  the  church,  one  has  to  be  at  some 
distance  before  one  realises  its  real  magnificence.  One  sees  it  best 
on  approaching  the  town  from  the  east.  There  it  seems  to  rise  por- 
tentous out  of  a  mass  of  leafage,  very  radiant  and  rejoicing.  The 
present  choir  roof  is  very  much  lower  than  it  must  originally  have 
been  —  indeed  it  hardly  appears  above  the  walls  of  the  clerestory, 
a  fact  which  imparts  a  rather  exotic  appearance  to  the  whole  building. 

The  tower  is  a  piece  of  eighteenth -century  work,  for  in  1748  the 
whole  of  the  original  fell  down.  It  contains  a  door  of  unmistakable 
churchwarden  origin,  but  its  actual  stonework  is  rather  pleasant  to  look 
at.  From  the  north  wall  of  the  church,  immediately  above  the  rood- 
loft,  rises  a  curious  little  conical  tower  which  common  report  asserts 
to  have  been  a  receptacle  for  treasure  during  times  of  storm  and  stress. 
It  was,  however,  more  probably  intended  for  the  sanctus  bell,  a  fact 
vouched  for  by  its  position.  Near  it  is  a  nineteenth  -  century  stone 
chimney,  ornamented  by  an  unornamental  chimney-pot.  One  hesitates 
whether  to  assign  this  to  Mr  Street  or  to  Mr  Pearson,  to  the  tender  mercies 
of  which  pair  the  unfortunate  building  was  handed  over  by  its  custodians — 
custodians  who  loved  it  not  too  wisely  but  much  too  well.  It  is  comforting 
to  see  that  the  very  stones  of  this  erection  are  crumbling  and  cracking  after 
their  short  and  ungraceful  term  of  years — comforting  to  think  that  whoever 
restores  it,  cannot  without  undue  trouble  make  it  more  ugly. 

In  the  crypt,  to  which  I  have  already  referred,  are  preserved  the 
bones  of  which  Hythe  is  not  unduly  proud.  Those  interested  in  them 
assign  them  to  the  victims  of  some  wellnigh  prehistoric  contest  between 
Britons  and  Saxons,  between  Saxons  and  Danes,  or  between  Hythe  folk 
and  the  French.  The  more  sceptical  deem  them  of  ordinary  churchyard 
origin.      There  is  nothing   to   prove   that   the    holes   in   the  skulls   were 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  219 

made  in  the  death -hour.  One,  however,  proves  to  the  satisfaction  of 
the  medical  faculty  that  its  owner  survived  the  infliction  by  some  years. 
There  is  nothing,  in  fact,  that  proves  anything  in  connection  with  the 
origin  of  the  bones.     They  are  none  the  less  impressive  in  their  way.^ 

"  I  was  a  child  not  yet  four  years  old,  and  yet  I  think  I  remember 
the  evening  sun  streaming  in  through  a  stained  window  upon  the  dingy 
mahogany  pulpit,  and  flinging  a  rich  lustre  upon  the  faded  tints  of  an 
ancient  banner.  And  now  once  more  "we  were  outside  the  building, 
where,  against  the  wall,  stood  a  low-eaved  pent-house,  into  which  we 
looked.  It  was  half  filled  with  substances  of  some  kind,  which  at  first 
looked  like  large  gray  stones.  The  greater  part  were  lying  in  layers ; 
some,  however,  were  seen  in  confused  and  mouldering  heaps,  and  two  or 
three,  which  had  perhaps  rolled  down  from  the  the  rest,  lay  separately 
on  the  floor.  'Skulls,  madam,'  said  the  sexton;  'skulls  of  the  old  Danes! 
Long  ago  they  came  pirating  into  these  parts  :  and  then  there  chanced  a 
mighty  shipwreck,  for  God  was  angry  with  them,  and  He  sunk  them ;  and 
their  skulls,  as  they  came  ashore,  were  placed  here  as  a  memorial.  There 
were  many  more  when  I  was  young,  but  now  they  are  fast  disappearing. 
Some  of  them  must  have  belonged  to  strange  fellows,  madam.  Only  see 
that  one  ;  why,  the  two  young  gentry  can  scarcely  lift  it ! '  And,  indeed, 
my  brother  and  myself  had  entered  the  Golgotha,  and  commenced  handling 
these  grim  relics  of  mortality.  One  enormous  skull,  lying  in  a  corner,  had 
fixed  our  attention,  and  we  had  drawn  it  forth.  Spirit  of  eld,  what  a  skull 
was  yon ! 

"  I  still  seem  to  see  it,  the  huge  grim  thing  ;  many  of  the  others  were 
large,  strikingly  so,  and  appeared  fully  to  justify  the  old  man's  conclusion 

'  Borrow  certainly  believed  in  the  Danish  origin  and  superhuman  stature  ;  and  if,  long  after,  when 

of  some  of  the  skulls — indeed,  speaking  of  one  of  I  became  a  student,  I  devoted  myself  with  peculiar 

them,  he  says,  "  I  never  forgot  the  Daneman's  zest  to  Danish  lore,  I  can  only  explain  the  matter 

skull ;  ...  it  dwelt  in  my  mind  as  a  boy,  ...  by  the  early  impression  received   at  Hythe." — 

and  from  that  moment  with  the  name  of  Dane  Lavengro,  chapter  ii. 
were  associated  strange  ideas  of  strength,  daring. 


220  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

that  their  owners  must  have  been  strange  fellows ;  but  compared  with  this 
mighty  mass  of  bone  they  looked  small  and  diminutive,  like  those  of 
pigmies ;  it  must  have  belonged  to  a  giant,  one  of  those  red-haired 
warriors  of  whose  strength  and  stature  such  wondrous  tales  are  told  in 
the  ancient  chronicles  of  the  north,  and  whose  grave -hills,  when  ran- 
sacked, occasionally  reveal  secrets  which  fill  the  minds  of  puny  moderns 
with  astonishment  and  awe." 

The  part  of  the  town  nfear  the  church  has  a  certain  charm,  the 
charm  of  grey  walls  topped  by  trees,  of  steeply  descending  courts,  of 
serpentine  streets  that  lead  nowhere  in  particular.  On  the  other  side 
of  the  narrow  street  of  the  town  one  meets  with  the  canal,  its  banks 
bordered  by  avenues  of  lofty  trees,  pleasant  enough  on  a  sunny  day. 
There  is  even  a  reading-room  where  one  may  gather  in  the  latest  of 
news  concerning  an  outer  world  that  does  not  matter  in  the  least.  One 
may  also,  I  think,  borrow  books  to  read  on  the  beach ;  but  what  class 
of  literature  one  finds  there  I  do  not  quite  know. 

One  reaches  the  sea  by  an  avenue  of  excessively  gnarled  trees, 
trees  beaten  about  and  torn  by  the  storms  of  a  century  or  two.  This 
they  call  "  The  Ladies'  Walk."  Who  the  ladies  were  that  walked  there 
one  cannot  discover.  Perhaps  they  enjoyed  life  and  wore  pretty  dresses. 
One  need  ask  little  more  of  a  place  than  that  it  should  let  us  hear  the 
ghostly  rustle  of  muslin,  the  merest,  faintest  rustle,  and  the  merest, 
faintest  echo  of  the  witticism  that  those  forgotten  ladies  tittered  over  in 
those  forgotten  days.  One  hears  just  something  of  it  when  one  is  in 
the  Ladies'  Walk — perhaps  it  is  the  name  that  makes  one  hear.  The 
sea  at  Hythe  is  very  like  the  sea  at  other  places  in  the  neighbourhood. 
One  sees  it  playing  at  gentleness  for  the  benefit  of  the  children  on  the 
beach ;  one  averts  one's  eyes  from  the  houses  and  sees  a  few  ships  far 
out  on  the  horizon.  When  it  is  angry,  in  the  winter  when  the  children 
are  gone,  it  foams  up  against  the  stone  walls  and  throws  shingle  into 
the  fields  by  the  canal. 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  221 

From  the  sea -front  one  has  the  best  view  of  Saltwood  Castle.  It 
was  so  lately  restored  and  converted  into  a  dwelling-house  that  it  is  still 
too  white  to  take  its  real  place  in  the  landscape.  It  stands  in  one  of 
the  valleys  that  run  down  out  of  the  downs  towards  the  sea,  and  leaves 
little  to  be  desired  either  in  situation  or  aspect.  The  ruins  of  the  outer 
walls,  now  grass -covered  and  forming  little  mounds  through  which  the 
grey  stone  peeps,  prove  its  considerable  size  in  the  days  when  the 
murderers  of  St  Thomas  rode  out  from  it  to  make  a  martyr  and  to 
prove,  incidentally,  the  instruments  of  the  cure  of  the  halt,  the  maimed, 
and  the  blind.  It  remained  unshorn  of  its  fair  proportions  until  com- 
paratively lately,  until,  indeed,  the  earthquake  of  1580  shook  much  of 
it  down,  and  the  polished  tastes  of  the  eighteenth  century  dictated  its 
dismantling  and  conversion  into  a  sort  of  quarry. 

The  village  of  Saltwood  itself  used  to  be  quaint  enough  until  the 
passion  and  profit  of  villa-building  caused  it  to  succumb  to  a  kind  of 
scarlet  fever.  The  church  in  which  the  archbishops  formerly  heard  mass 
is  a  small,  but  rather  richly  ornamented  building,  not  by  any  means 
unworthy  of  a  desultory  visit.  Quite  near  the  church,  too,  are  the 
American  Gardens,  where  exotic  plants  and  brass  bands  flourish  in 
apparently  harmonious  conjunction. 

From  the  village  of  Saltwood  one  may  descend  to  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  School  of  Musketry  by  rather  devious  and  bewildering  paths. 
Here  the  old  and  the  young  idea  learn  how  to  shoot.  One  may  see 
a  singular  assortment  of  uniforms,  for  the  place  is  used  for  the  instruction 
of  picked  men  from  various  regiments.  The  School  is  ugly,  as  only 
military  buildings  know  how  to  be,  but  it  is  agreeably  hidden  by  trees. 
It  is  pathetic  to  see,  on  the  green  space  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
canal,  stalwart  men  conning  books  of  instruction,  like  so  many  unfor- 
tunate schoolboys,  examining  one  another  or  stretched  on  the  grass  with 
the  ominous  little  treatises  in  hand.  Such  work  must  add  another  to 
the  horrors  of  warlike  men  in  peace  times,  to  the  horrors  of  war  itself 


222  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

A  little  farther  to  the  west  one  may  hear  and  see  the  principles  of  the 
books  put  in  practice. 

To  any  one  walking  along  the  dusty  Dymchurch  road  on  a  hot  day 
the  continual  clatter  of  small-arm  and  Maxim  fire,  the  hiss  of  the  bullets 
— most  disagreeable  of  sounds — combine  to  be  half-maddening.  One  has 
the  white  glare  of  road  and  shingle,  where  everything  is  dancing  and 
shimmering  with  the  heat  -  haze.  One  looks  for  relief  to  the  targets 
which  one  has  been  in  the  habit  of  regarding  as  the  most  stable  of 
humanly  erected  objects,  and  sees  that  the  white  squares  with  the  black 
splotches  on  them  are  bobbing  up  and  down  in  front  of  one's  bewildered 
eyes.  One  imagines  oneself  the  victim  of  optical  delusion  until  the 
targets  have  absurdly  curtsied  a  dozen  times  or  more,  and  then  one 
dispiritedly  resumes  the  way.  Why  the  targets  bob  one  does  not  dis- 
cover— perhaps  it  is  to  suit  the  exigencies  of  the  markers  behind  the 
embankments,  above  which  their  black  disks  appear;  perhaps  to  afford 
a  kind  of  flying  mark.  A  little  farther  on  one  is  confronted  by  more 
trying  apparitions,  little  rows  of  black  objects  presumably  intended  to  rep- 
resent Russians  or  French  or  Turks  or  Prussians.  In  either  case  a 
paternal  but  unaesthetic  Government  should  be  taken  to  task  by  the 
local  representatives  for  making  hideous  an  already  sufficiently  trying 
stretch  of  road.  The  martello  towers  are  bad  enough,  the  trying  little 
fort  at  the  end  of  the  Dymchurch  wall  is  worse,  but  infinitely  more 
disturbing  are  the  hopping  targets. 

As  if  to  afford  compensation,  the  canal  between  Hythe  and  West 
Hythe,  which  is  also  War  Department  property,  is  extremely  beautiful. 
One  walks  between  an  avenue  of  lofty  trees  and  is  shut  out  from  the 
northern  world  by  sheer  green  hills  with  a  crest  of  sandstone  rocks 
jutting  out  of  their  summits.  They  are  very  lonely,  so  little  disturbed 
that  ravens  nest  among  them  and  badgers  still  have  their  holes  on 
the  slopes.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  good  deal  of  the  country  is  quite 
solitary,    surprisingly   so    when   one   comes   from    places    so    peopled    as 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  223 

the  stretch  of  shore  to  the  east.  West  Hythe  is  an  almost  non-existent 
hamlet.  It  contains  a  primitive  hostelry,  a  number  of  large  signs 
announcing  the  procurability  of  refreshments,  and  a  few  very  small 
cottages.  The  old  church  has  been  turned  to  agricultural  purposes, 
and  as  a  cow  -  byre,  undergoes  an  honourable  eclipse.  There  are  a 
number  of  such  sacred  edifices  along  the  slopes  of  the  hill.  A  little 
farther  to  the  west,  indeed,  there  is  a  parish  church — that  of  Fawken- 
Hurst — that  has  entirely  disappeared.  The  vicar  holds  a  service  once 
every  two  years,  preaching  from  the  cart -tail  to  a  large  congregation, 
who  range  themselves  on  forms. 

The  road  up  Lympne  hill  is  of  portentous  steepness — a  steepness 
more  portentous  than  that  of  any  hill -road  that  I  know.  It  is  appa- 
rently a  continuation  of  the  Roman  road,  ran  perhaps  down  to  the  quays. 
If  so,  one  pities  the  slaves  who  had  to  bear  the  merchandise  up  to 
the  heights  above.  They  had,  at  least,  a  glorious  view,  but  one 
imagines  that  they  were  hardly  in  a  condition  to  enjoy  it.  One  is 
scarcely  so  oneself,  after  having  made  the  ascent.  One  may  reach 
the  London  road  at  the  top  of  Hythe  hill ;  but  if,  as  one  ought,  one 
dislikes  the  thought  of  anything  that  takes  name  and  rise  from  the 
metropolis,  one  does  better  to  descend  the  steep,  deserted  path  leading 
eastward  down  to  the  foot  of  the  ridge.  It  is  a  very  old,  very  sunken, 
overgrown  path,  one  of  the  oldest  paths  of  all  the  district.  Indeed,  but 
for  the  fact  that  it  concerns  itself  nothing  at  all  with  direction  towards 
Canterbury,  one  might  imagine  that  it  was  a  pilgrims'  track.  It  leads 
down  and  down  and  down,  growing  rougher  and  rougher,  until  It  is 
nothing  but  the  bed  of  a  water  -  course.  One  might  be  anywhere — 
anywhere  but  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  a.  fashionable  watering- 
place.  But  suddenly  one  finds  oneself  on  a  broad  road,  one  sees  the 
kitchens  of  the  School  of  Musketry  before  one,  and  in  what  one  calls 
"no  time"  one  is  back  again  in  the  narrow  winding  street  of  Hythe 
itself 


224  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

The  road  between  Hythe  and  Sandgate  is  rather  tedious,  entirely 
unshaded  on  a  hot  day,  unsheltered  on  a  wet  or  a  windy.  One  does 
better  to  walk  along  the  sea-walk — perhaps  it  is  called  an  esplanade. 
There,  at  least,  one  is  out  of  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  villas — villas 
in  which  the  most  eccentric  types  of  architecture  display  themselves, 
and  seem  to  be  much  appreciated. 

The  sea,  as  a  rule,  is  sleepy  and  washes  the  foot  of  the  wall  with 
a  lazy  murmur.  But  once  a-year — more  often  in  some  years — it  wakes 
up  and  makes  a  plaything  of  the  wall,  tears  great  masses  out  of  it, 
and  carries  them  off  to  unknown  depths.  This  is  more  particularly 
the  case  at  the  juncture  of  Seabrook  and  Sandgate.  Here,  perhaps  be- 
cause of  its  situation  in  the  bottom  of  the  bay,  the  sea  invariably  works 
its  winter  will.  I  do  not  remember  ever  to  have  passed  through  the 
place  without  seeing  works  of  some  sort  in  progress.  In  the  winter 
the  sea  is  engaged  in  making  gaps ;  throughout  the  rest  of  the  year 
the  local  authorities  in  repairing  them.  Sandgate,  indeed,  feels  the 
full  force  of  the  tremendous  south-westerly  gales  —  the  very  gales 
that  have  ruined  so  many  of  the  Five  Ports,  that  have  been  strong 
enough  to  give  their  names  to  a  form  of  headdress.  Sandgate,  too, 
.sees  more  than  its  share  of  wrecks.  Dungeness  Bay  with  a  northerly 
wind  is  the  best  of  sheltering-places.  In  the  old  days,  before  steamers 
had  almost  entirely  taken  the  place  of  sailing-vessels,  the  bay  used 
to  be  as  crowded  with  sheltering  ships  as  Sandgate  beach  is  with 
summer  visitors.  Even  now  it  has  its  quota  of  vessels,  when  the 
northern  breezes  blow.  But  if  the  wind  shifts  suddenly  round  the 
compass  and  blows  hard  from  the  south-west,  some  are  almost  invariably 
driven  ashore  at  Sandgate. 

When  one  was  a  boy  at  school  at  Folkestone  one  found  a  charm- 
ing variation  to  a  comfortless  walk  on  the  Leas  in  peeping  over  the 
edcre  of  the  hill  down  to  Sandgate  and  seeing  sometimes  one,  some- 
times   even  two  or  three,   helpless  ships,  very  small  and  black,  heeling 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  225 

over  landwards  and  reaching  despairing,  taper  masts  up  to  the  clearing 
skies.  It  was  exhilarating,  too,  to  troop  down  to  the  beach  and  enrich 
one's  collections  with  the  flotsam  that  poured  out  of  the  poor  stranded 
things.  One  found  cocoanuts  and  oranges  and  bits  of  coal  and  small 
spars,  occasionally  a  seaman's  hat  or  a  water -worn  shoe.  Sometimes 
— so  the  legend  says — ships  coming  ashore  have  run  their  bowsprits 
through  the  windows  of  the  houses  of  Sandgate  Street ;  sometimes 
falling  masts  have  crashed  through  roofs.  The  most  serious  blow  that 
the  town  of  late  years  has  endured  is  said  to  have  been  connected 
with  the  wreck  of  the  Benvenue.  This,  a  large  vessel,  sank  within  a 
few  hundred  yards  of  the  shore,  where  its  masts  formed  a  standing 
menace  to  traffickers  on  the  waters.  It  was  blown  up  with  dynamite, 
and  a  few  days  afterwards  the  houses  on  the  hill  began  to  slide  down- 
wards towards  the  sea.  Some  of  them  were  badly  cracked,  one  or 
two  rendered  unsafe  for  habitation.  But  the  most  serious  damages  were 
the  resulting  panic  that  for  a  time  kept  visitors  away  from  the  town, 
and  the  excuse  that  was  afforded  for  doing  away  with  the  comparatively 
picturesque  coastguard  station,  which  was  replaced  by  a  row  of  villa- 
residences. 

Sandgate  of  late  years  has  altered  immensely,  has  succumbed  to 
the  Zeit  Geist.  Quite  a  short  time  ago  it  was  the  quietest  of  long 
streets  walled  in  by  weather- boarded  houses,  but  these  will  soon  be 
things  of  the  past.  Such  as  it  was,  the  town  in  the  'Forties  boasted  an 
anonymous  laureate,  who  in  not  quite  despicable  verse  sang  the  charms 
of  its  quietness  and  its  solitary,  buxom  hostess.  But  these,  too,  have 
passed  away.  On  the  sea -shore,  almost  at  the  foot  of  Folkestone 
Hill,  stands  what  remains  of  the  castle  of  Henry  VIII.  Few  of 
the  original  stones  are  to  be  seen.  Less  fortunate  than  Winchelsea 
Castle,  the  poor  thing  was  entirely  remodelled  in  1806,  was  brought 
into  line  with  the  martello  towers.  Indeed  there  is  as  little  left  of  Henry's 
building  as  there  is  of  the  legendary  castle  of  Richard  II.     It  was  never- 

p 


226  THE    CINQUE  PORTS. 

theless   regarded   as   a   potential  defence  until   about  twenty  years  ago, 
the  guns  that  did  not  resist  the  landing  of  Napoleon  being  replaced  in 
1879  by  "six  rifled,  muzzle-loading  sixty-fours."     These,  however,  were 
never  mounted,  and  when  the  castle  was  bought  in   1881   by  the  South- 
Eastern  Railway,  were  removed.     The  last  public  act  that  distinguished 
the  inglorious  career  of  the  fortress  was  the  hoisting  of  the  royal  standard 
on  Jubilee  Day,    1887.     During  the  Crimean  war  the  place  became  the 
military  prison.     It    was   filled  by   members    of  the    Foreign    Legion,   to 
whose  tender  mercies  the  shores  of  this  part  of  England  were  confided. 
The  troops    of   Prince  Albert  seem  to  have  terrorised  the  countryside. 
From  the  oldest  inhabitants  one  may  still  hear  of  the  misdoings  of  these 
foreigners,  who  are  said  to  have  been  the  sweepings  of  the  Saxe-Coburg 
jails.     They  robbed  hen-roosts,    broke  windows,   spoke  a  language  that 
was    more    than    criminal    in    its    incomprehensibility,    and    varied    their 
pursuits  by  the  commission  of  an  occasional  murder.     One  may  still  in 
lonely  villages  hear  the  verses   that  commemorated  the  doing  to  death 
of   "sweet  Jemima   and  lovely   Caroline"   by  a  member  of  the   German 
Legion.      One    may    hear   still    the   minute    description    of  the    wretched 
German's  execution  at  Maidstone,  the  minute  analysis  of  the  spectators' 
feelings.     When,  many  years  ago,  a  wild  Irish  regiment  took  it  into  its 
head  to   run  amuck  through  the  surrounding  country,  the  oldest  inhabi- 
tants shook  their  heads  and  said,   "  You  should  have  seen  the  Garmen 
Legend."     These  things  are  now  mere  matter  of  history.     The  soldiers 
are  kept  in  with  a  strong  hand  ;  one  no  longer  runs  the  risk,  when   one 
is  being  wheeled  in  a  bath-chair  through  the  streets  of  Sandgate,  of  being 
deserted  by  a  panic-stricken  drawer,  and  left  in  the  midst  of  a  conflict 
resembling  those  of  the  great  D'Artagnan  and  his  friends.     Contrariwise, 
the  soldiers,  according  to  the  present  edition  of  the  '  Folkestone  Guide,' 
are  respected  by  the  local  people,  and  thus  "are  encouraged  to  respect 
themselves."     Sandgate  has,   in   fact,   become  a  perfectly  safe  resort  for 
invalids,  particularly  for  the  invalid  with  a  weak  chest. 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  227 

Shorncliffe  camp,  which  runs  along  the  whole  of  the  ridge  dominating 
Sandgate,  is  one  of  the  outcomes  of  the  Napoleonic  wars.  It  was  first 
established  for  the  benefit  of  the  troops  who  were  ultimately  to  be  driven 
out  of  Spain  at  Corunna.  This  was  in  1794,  and  from  that  time  until 
the  fall  of  Napoleon  it  became  a  place  of  drilling  and  of  assembly  for 
all  the  forces  in  this  part  of  the  country.  To  that  end  the  Hythe  Canal 
was  made.  From  181 5  until  the  days  of  the  Crimean  war  the  place 
suffered  an  eclipse ;  but  at  the  latter  date  it  again  became  the  principal 
depot  for  departing  regiments.  It  was  upon  its  completion  that  the 
Queen  made  the  memorable  visit  to  Folkestone,  when  the  hovels  along 
the  road  were  concealed  by  quilted  handkerchiefs  and  the  very  gun 
was  moved  to  enthusiasm.  The  camp  of  those  days  was  composed  of 
wooden  huts.  One  may,  in  one  of  the  numbers  of  '  Punch,'  observe  the 
tribulation  of  the  dandy  officers  of  the  day  condemned  to  inhabit  a 
dwelling  not  large  enough  to  admit  a  fourth  player  in  the  game  of  whist. 
They  had,  we  are  assured,  to  play  dummy,  the  hardships  that  culminated 
before  the  walls  of  Sevastopol  beginning  thus  early  and  with  such 
severity.  Of  the  original  huts  very  few  remain.  Those  that  do  have 
some  of  the  pathos,  some  of  the  picturesqueness,  of  survivals.  It  is 
normally  impossible  to  imagine  that  anything  made  by  the  hands  of  the 
English  of  the  year  of  grace  1854  can  have  had  anything  of  the  latter 
quality,  but  one  sighs  for  even  the  early  Victorian  when  one  stands  near 
the  dwellings  that  have  succeeded  the  huts  where  one  had  to  employ  a 
dummy. 

The  present  camp  occupies  the  greater  part  of  the  table-land  above 
Sandgate.  In  its  centre  are  the  drilling-grounds.  Here  one  may  see 
recruits  of  phenomenal  awkwardness  engaged  in  proving  that  a  straight 
line  is  certainly  anything  but  the  shortest  distance  between  two  points. 
One  may  see,  too,  flag-signalling  in  progress,  and  one  may  have  one's 
eyes'  dazzled  by  the  flashes  of  the  heliograph.  One  is  permitted  to 
wander   about  the  whole   of  the  camp  ;    may   walk   through   the  stables, 


228  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

where,  as  a  rule,  the  horses  are  none  of  the  best;  may  inspect  the 
cooking  of  one's  defenders'  dinners.  One  sees  the  soldier  in  his  workaday 
costume — a  costume  quite  the  reverse  of  the  picturesque.  He  looks,  in 
fact,  like  an  upright  convict — the  unjustly  condemned  one — looks  almost 
as  disreputable  as  some  of  the  German  regiments  that  one  sees  slouching 
through  the  streets  of  the  less-frequented  towns  of  the  Fatherland.  One 
runs  no  risk  of  being  spitted,  "a  la  mode  le  pays  de  France."  There  are 
no  sentries  apparent  anywhere,  save  before  the  back-doors  of  ofificers, 
where  they  seem  to  be  engaged  in  protecting  the  kitchen  from  the  ingress 
of  unwholesome  viands.  Even  in  front  of  the  entrance  to  the  martello 
tower,  which  proclaims  itself  a  magazine,  there  appears  no  guard  of  any 
kind. 

Once  a-week,  for  church  parade,  the  camp  brightens  up.  One  sees 
fine  men  in  fine  uniforms  marching  out  of  the  military  chapel.  They  do 
not  match  as  to  height,  detachments  of  cavalry  of  portentous  tallness 
alternating  with  those  of  infantry  apparently  selected  for  their  smallness. 
Perhaps  they  make  more  difficult  targets.  One  hopes  they  do.  But 
then,  at  least,  one  sees  the  glitter  and  the  sparkle  that  one  expects  to 
accompany  the  gathering  of  the  soldiers  that  one  is  taxed  to  maintain. 
On  the  rest  of  the  week  one  has  to  be  content  with  the  soldier  intime 
— a  soldier  bearing  a  faint  resemblance  to  the  Mulvaney  and  Learoyd 
oi  another  story.  One  meets  him,  too,  very  dusty  and  weighed  down 
with  a  mass  of  implements  apparently  selected  on  the  lines  of  the  bee- 
hives and  fire-irons  of  the  White  Knight.  He  is  then  engaged  in 
distance-marching,  an  excellent  occupation  that  was  invented  in  Germany. 
Travelling  on  the  railways,  one  meets  him  returning  unwillingly  to  Shorn- 
cliffe,  attentively  watched  by  a  pair  of  comrades.  Then  he  is  a  deserter. 
As  such,  one  meets  him  most  often  just  before  a  regiment  goes  abroad. 
When  he  is  caught,  which  happens  more  often  than  not,  he  is  tried  by 
court-martial  and  condemned  to  a  term  of  days  in  prison.  On  his  release 
he  finds  himself  forced  to  serve  the  remainder  of  his  term  with  no  pay  for 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  229 

the  greater  part  of  the  time.  He  has  to  pay  for  his  kit  all  over  again ; 
for  it  generally  happens  that  the  intentions  of  a  man  about  to  desert 
are  sufficiently  well  known  to  his  comrades.  Then,  the  moment  that 
he  does  not  answer  to  the  call  of  his  name,  the  rest  of  his  room-mates 
descend  upon  his  undefended  kit  and  appropriate  it.  These  are  the 
men  who  have  taken  the  place  of  the  gromets  or  garcions  that  aforetimes 
defended  the  shores  of  the  Cinque  Ports. 

Folkestone  one  sees  plainly  enough  from  the  camp.  It  lies  across  a 
steeply  sided  ravine,  the  eastern  side  of  which  one  may  climb  in  a  lift. 
From  a  distance  it  presents  an  appearance  of  serried  sameness  whose 
only  feature  is  a  gigantic  hotel  in  the  foreground.  When  one  enters  it 
one  finds  a  thin  fringe  of  red-brick  erections  hanging  on  to  the  western 
skirts.  This  is  succeeded  by  a  belt  of  houses  in  the  transition  stage. 
There  succeeds  a  great  district  of  grey,  cement-faced  houses,  houses 
suggesting  certain  dismal  roads  in  the  district  called  indiscriminately 
Kensington.  Farther  east  one  finds  the  erratic  streets  of  the  old  town, 
farther  still  the  squalid  buildings  of  the  classes  that  maintain  the  traditional 
splendour  of  Folkestone  seasons. 

Folkestone,  since  it  became  a  watering-place,  has  always  retained  a 
hold  on  the  more  moneyed  of  those  who  go  down  to  the  sea  in  summer. 
It  does  not  lay  itself  out  to  attract  the  ephemeral  tripper.  It  even  holds 
itself  aloof  from  the  sea,  caters  for  a  class  that  does  not  sit  on  the  beach, 
a  class  that  regards  the  sea  with  the  platonic  liking  that  it  confers  on 
personages  both  estimable  and  ennuyant.  The  air  is  not  impregnated 
with  brine,  does  not  unduly  quicken,  does  not  render  one  embarrassingly 
boisterous.  Hence  its  attractions  for  legislators  who  shun  places  more 
marine,  places  whose  airs  might  cause  them  to  grow  lusty  to  the  point 
of  incurring  the  displeasure  of  Mr  Speaker ;  for  financial  gentlemen  who 
dare  not  be  lured  by  rosy  health  to  the  point  of  seeing  stocks  and  shares 
in  which  they  are  interested  all  couleur  de  rose.  Thus  on  the  Leas  on 
a  Sunday  one  may  see  the  Distinguished  and  the  Wealthy  rub  shoulders 


230  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

in  pleasant  contiguity,  instinct  with  the  satisfactory  knowledge  that  they 
have  achieved  their  weekly  devotions  and  that  a  good  dinner  awaits  a 
good  appetite.  The  edges  of  prayer  -  books  gleam  along  the  smooth 
grass,  the  sun  shines,  the  dresses  rustle  discreetly,  the  voices  simulate 
the  murmur  of  the  sea.  The  sea  itself  keeps  at  respectful  distance,  acts 
as  a  good  servant,  silently  supplying  the  necessary  ozone.  Perhaps  one, 
if  one  is  of  that  kind,  notices  its  fineness  as  one  notices  the  excellent 
deportment  of  So  -  and  -  so's  butler.  This  is  the  real  philosophy  of  a 
Folkestone  season.  This  is  the  town's  justification,  its  apologia  pro 
vita  sua. 

This,  however,  only  lasts  through  the  season,  which  is  contemporary 
to  some  extent  with  that  of  London.  If  one  happens  to  be  in  the  town 
about  one  o'clock  of  an  August  day  one  is  confronted  with  the  usual 
crowd  of  children  carrying  spades  and  pails  —  the  comfortable,  happy 
crowd  of  children  of  the  middle  -  class  returning  to  its  midday  meal. 
During  storm  times  the  Leas  grow  deserted ;  one  walks  along  the  im- 
mensely long  parade,  on  the  cliff,  where  everything  falls  into  perspective, 
meeting  no  one.  Between  the  showers,  ranks  of  schoolboys  are  let  out 
to  catch  what  air  they  may.  They  walk  fast,  little  legs  twinkling  against 
the  sky  that  shows  between  their  coats  and  the  edge  of  the  cliff.  At  the 
end  arises  the  mournful  tall  figure  of  the  attendant  usher.  When  the 
rain  sweeps  again  on  the  wet  asphalt  they  once  more  disappear  and  one 
has  the  place  to  oneself. 

The  Leas  boast  a  stretch  of  undercliff  where  the  air  is  always  tepid, 
always  suggests  that  of  a  perfectly  ventilated  room.  For  a  long  time 
these  cliff-face  walks  held  out  against  the  spirit  of  improvement,  remained 
touched  by  the  spirit  of  wildness  ;  but  now,  at  last,  they  are  succumbing 
to  the  power  that  scatters  rustic  bridges  about.  At  the  base  there  is  an 
even  more  sheltered  road ;  below  that  again,  the  beach  and  the  sea. 

Folkestone  boasts  few  objects  of  antique  interest ;  in  exchange  it 
has,  as  one  may  read  in  the  '  Folkestone  Guide,'  a  number  of  modern 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  231 

institutions.  It  contains  a  very  good  reading-room,  an  indifferent  museum, 
swimming-baths,  cemeteries,  et patati  et patata.  The  parish  church,  which 
stands  to  the  eastern  end  of  the  upper  town,  is  a  historic  building  of  no 
great  architectural  importance.  It  contains  one  fine  tomb,  probably  that 
of  a  member  of  the  Criol  family.  It  stands  in  a  triangular  churchyard 
which  has  some  of  the  elements  of  picturesqueness.  The  modern  town 
ends  rather  abruptly  at  the  top  of  the  High  Street,  and  one  descends 
suddenly  into  the  regions  of  the  harbour.  The  fishmarket,  which  stands 
on  the  north  side  of  the  water,  is  worth  seeing  after  a  good  catch.  One 
sees  old  houses ;  fishermen  who  seem  to  possess,  unconsciously,  the  art  of 
dressing  so  as  to  please  the  eye  ;  small  mounds  of  silver  fish.  The  place 
is  very  shut  in  by  the  precipitous  cliffs  to  the  east.  One  has  the  feeling 
of  being  in  a  nook  where  the  spirit  of  the  age  finds  it  hard  to  enter. 
The  outgoing  and  the  incoming  of  the  boats  is  very  much  what  it  has 
been  for  centuries.  One  stands  on  the  old  harbour  and  sees  below  one's 
feet  the  boats  glide  by  —  the  battered  boats  with  their  little  crews  of 
battered  men,  the  nets,  the  untidiness,  the  slipshod,  the  makeshift. 
These  harvesters  of  the  unplanted  are  every  whit  as  conservative,  every 
whit  as  unchanging,  as  their  brothers  of  the  furrow.  They  face  the 
elements,  grow  rugged,  clumsily  alert,  and  retain  for  ever  the  charm  of 
men  who  drink  deep  breaths  of  pure  air.  On  the  other  side  of  the 
harbour  one  wanders  over  a  network  of  railway  lines,  hangs  over  the 
balustrades  above  the  sea,  crowds  to  gaze  at  the  unhappy  passengers 
new  come  off  the  water.  In  between  the  fishers  and  the  railwaymen  lie 
the  ships  of  the  users  of  the  port.  They  are  mostly  foreigners,  mostly 
men  from  the  North  —  Swedes  with  their  decks  covered  by  piles  of 
planking,  colliers,  and  what  not.  They,  like  the  fishermen,  are  as  a  rule 
untidy,  and  untidiness  is  not  unwelcome  in  a  town  so  well  ordered  as  the 
Folkestone  of  to-day. 

West  of  the  harbour  is  a  flat  stretch  of  ground.     In  front  of  it  what 
of  the  beach  is  used  by  children  and  nursemaids.     I   was  sitting  a  year 


232  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

or  so  ago  on  a  seat  near  the  casino  of  one  of  the  bains  de  mer  of  the 
opposite  coast.     The  tide  was  out,  the  sea,  now  a  long,  long  way  away, 
had  left  little  pools  of  water  on  the  sand.      There  came  along  a  gentle- 
man rather  well  known  in  France,  a  deputy  and  so  on.     He  was  dressed 
in  the  severest  of  blacks,  wore  a  high  hat,  and  had  the  eternal  red  button 
in  the  button -hole  of  his  frock-coat.     He  had  by  his  side  his  wife,  also 
dressed   in  black,   two    little  boys   in    black,  and   two   little   black   dogs. 
They  stood  out  against  the  dun  sand  like  silhouettes.     They  came  to 
one  of  the  pools,  and  without  a  word  the  whole  cortege,  headed  by  the 
deputy,  doffed  their  shoes  and  stockings  and  began  gravely  to  paddle  in 
the  shallow  waters.      Such  a  proceeding  would  be  impossible  in  a  place 
like  Folkestone — a  place  not  more  crowded  and  no  whit  less  fashionable 
than  the  other.     They  may  not,  one  thinks,  manage  these  things  better 
in  France ;    they  certainly  take   their  sea  more  seriously ;   but  that  may 
be  because  they  do  not  rule  the  waves,  because  their  ships  no  longer  sail 
across   Channel  with  crews  to  sack  and  burn  the  towns  of  the   Cinque 
Ports.     To  the  north  of  the  harbour,  the  east  of  the  town,  lie  the  poorer 
quarters,  dismal  enough  in  a  town  so  rich.     One  passes  through  this  part 
of  the  town  when  on  one's  way  to  the  Warren — Folkestone's  most  noted 
show-place.     It  is  a  piece  of  foreshore  caused  by  the  recession  of  the  cliffs 
before  the  combined  attacks  of  the  sea  and  of  the  frosts,  which  eat  away 
huge  masses  of  chalk.     It  contains  vast  numbers  of  fossils  and  a  certain 
proportion  of  rare  wild  plants,  which  flourish  well  enough  in  its  sub-tropical 
climate.     It  is  a  no-man's  land,  an  unevenly  surfaced  common  where  one 
may  wander  quite  at  one's  will.      If  one  seeks  fossils,   one  finds  them 
best  in  the  weird  layers  of  sea-washed  clay ;  if  wild  plants,  they  may  be 
found  anywhere  above  the  water  -  line.      One  may  climb  the  steep  faces 
of  the  cliffs  in  places,  if  one  be  so  minded,  but  the  occupation  is  not  one 
to  be  recommended  to  the  normally  sedentary.     There  used  to  be  a  rail- 
way station  in  the  centre  of  the  Warren,  but  this,  I  believe,  is  no  longer 
available. 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  233 

The  northern  suburb  of  the  town  is  composed  of  the  inevitable 
villa  residences ;  but  things  like  this  one  knows  to  be  inevitable.  For  a 
place  of  the  sort  the  congeries  of  houses  round  the  station  that  used  to 
be  called  Radnor  Park,  that  now  is  Folkestone  Central,  is  as  spacious, 
as  spick  and  span,  and  as  well  planned  as  one  could  desire. 

The  road  to  the  west  is  rather  dreary.  One  may  turn  off  to  the 
right  and  reach  the  downs  after  a  certain  amount  of  collar-work.  From 
their  summits  one  has  the  finest  of  views,  looking  right  over  the  head, 
so  to  speak,  of  the  town  of  Folkestone,  right  over  to  the  opposite  shores, 
to  the  twin  town  of  Boulogne.  Through  a  good  glass  one  can  see 
Boulogne  Cathedral.  On  Csesar's  Camp  one  may  appropriately  meditate 
on  the  Romans  or  the  Britons ;  on  Sugar- Loaf  Hill  on  the  Saxons.  But 
if  one  is  a  child,  one  knows  how  better  to  enjoy  the  historic  slopes. 
One  rolls  down  them  sideways,  catching  brief,  breathless,  ecstatic  glimpses 
of  earth  and  sky  alternated. 

If,  instead  of  climbing  towards  the  downs,  one  continue  the  westward 
road,  one  passes  through  a  series  of  depressing  suburbs  until  one  reaches 
the  village  of  Newington.  The  earth  between  this  place  and  Folke- 
stone has  that  desultory,  listless  air  of  agricultural  land  that  is  awaiting 
the  builder  on  the  morrow.  It  seems  to  fold  its  hands,  to  ask  hopelessly 
of  the  despondent  plough,  "Why  again  disturb  my  surfaces?"  There 
is  —  there  used  to  be,  for  perhaps  it  has  now  disappeared  —  a  quaint 
cottage  at  a  quaint  elbow  of  the  road,  a  thatched  cottage  standing  be- 
side a  pool.  This  marks,  at  least  it  did  last  month,  the  commencement 
of  the  real  country,  of  the  real  thing.  The  road  suddenly  becomes 
excessively  beautiful,  undulates,  beneath  the  shade  of  lofty  trees  at  the 
foot  of  loftier  hills. 

One  may  reach  Lyminge  either  by  turning  sharply  to  the  right  or 
by  continuing  on  the  London  road  until  it  reaches  Postling  Vents.  To 
those  who  are  not  afraid  of  climbing,  the  former  is  the  better  way.  One 
goes  up  and  up  and  up  along  a  road  that  makes  for  the  spectacular.     One 


234  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

has  always  a  fine  view.  Even  on  misty  days  the  atmosphere  in  these 
parts  has  always  a  pearly  quality,  an  indefinable  charm  of  greyness.  On 
the  visiting  days  of  the  Great  House  over  the  hill,  this  road  is  speckled  all 
over  its  upward  course  with  those  who  have  business  with  the  unfortunate, 
a  pathetic  swarm  who  climb  and  climb  up  the  steep  highway,  dwindling 
to  the  merest  dots  as  one  watches  them  ascend.  On  the  left  of  the  road 
is  the  fine  estate  of  Brock  Hill. 

Up  above,  just  hidden  from  sight,  is  the  Great  House,  the  house 
of  them  that  failed.  Of  all  the  many  hideous  erections  of  the  neigh- 
bourhood it  is  the  most  hideous,  the  most  comfortless  in  appearance,  this 
last  home  to  which  we've  "  all  got  to  go,"  as  the  country-people  say. 
The  saying  is  as  true  as  it  is  sad.  Those  down  near  the  earth  slip  inevit- 
ably into  this  atrocious  place.  The  object  of  Unions,  one  knows,  is  to  punish 
those  who  have  committed  the  crime  of  being  poor.  That  is  well  enough 
in  a  country  where  richness  is  the  highest  of  virtues.  But  it  is  sad  that 
those  who  have  ward  over  the  poor  should  have  chosen  to  make  the  place 
so  glaring,  to  constitute  it  a  standing  menace  to  the  workers  in  the  silent 
hollows  amongst  which  it  stands.  I  remember  still  the  incredible,  almost 
menacing  speech  of  a  farmer  to  whom  I  was  once  listening.  "  Ah  yes," 
he  said,  "a  fine  life's  a  working  farmer's.  He  gives  the  best  part  of 
days  to  work  like  mine — up  in  the  morning  before  sunrise,  in  bed  before 
sunset,  without  a  moment  of  leisure.  That  for  the  best  part  of  his  days, 
for  the  part  whilst  he  has  any  kicks  left  in  him,  any  chance  to  get  a  bit 
of  pleasure  out  of  life.  And  then  .  .  ."  He  motioned  with  his  thumb 
over  his  shoulder.  Above  the  graciously  waving  crest  of  a  great  dun 
down-slope  peeped  the  repulsive  top  of  a  factory  chimney,  one  of  the 
chimneys  of  the  Union.  It  stood  for  the  man's  destiny,  spied  down 
the  slopes  to  see  how  long  it  would  have  to  wait  for  him,  how  far 
down  the  weight  of  "things  in  general"   had  dragged  him  towards  his 

certain  goal. 

One  may  turn  to  one's  right  immediately  after  passing  this  monstros- 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  235 

ity  and  will  reach   the  lonely  hamlet  of   Paddlesworth.     This  is  distin- 
guished by  a  verse  that  says — 

"  Highest  church  and  smallest  steeple, 
Largest  parish,  fewest  people." 

The  church  is  a  chapel  of  ease  of  microscopic  dimensions,  and  the  parish 
is  certainly  thinly  populated.  It  claims  to  stand  at  the  highest  point 
in  the  county ;  but,  unless  one  ignores  the  claims  of  Knockholt,  one  has 
to  refuse  credence  to  this  assertion.  It  is,  however,  quite  high  enough 
to  send  a  bold  lie  down.  All  the  tract  of  uplands  to  the  north  of  the 
place  is  really  fascinating  in  character.  Seen  from  below,  from  the 
Folkestone  roads  or  from  Elham  valley,  the  downs  appear  bare  and 
instinct  with  the  monotony  of  the  rolling  South  Downs  ;  but  once  one 
has  climbed  the  outer  ridges,  one  walks  on  a  table-land  as  unlike  the 
bare  South  Downs  as  land  can  be.  One  travels  by  sunken,  ancient  roads 
between  banks  luxuriant  with  wild  flowers,  banks  that  one  can  only 
find  elsewhere  in  Devonshire  and  Hampshire.  Above  the  banks  stand 
the  thick,  small,  bird-filled  woods  that  we  call  shaves.  One  is  quite  shut 
in  in  these  sheltered  roads — not  left  naked,  as  it  were,  beneath  an  immense 
sky.  Sometimes  even  one  can  see  no  sky  at  all  for  the  criss-crossing 
of  the  feathery  branches  high  up  above  one's  head.  The  roads  plunge 
down  precipitous  valley-sides,  turn  and  twist  in  the  falling,  are  almost 
perilous  to  the  driver  or  the  cyclist.  When  one  drives,  one  seems  at 
times  to  sit  almost  perpendicularly  above  one's  horse's  withers.  The 
roads  are  an  index  of  the  ancientness  of  this  forgotten  countryside. 
They  have  never  been  altered  from  the  courses  which  they  took  in  times 
when  the  dale-dwellers  cared  nothing  for  steepnesses ;  have  been  worn 
deeper  and  deeper  into  the  hillsides,  will  go  on  growing  deeper  and 
deeper  for  ever. 

Sometimes  the  valleys  open  out  for  a  little  into  dales.     Then  one 
sees  farmhouses  surrounded  by  long  narrow  strips  of  green  plough-lands. 


236  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

The  woods  sweep  down  the  slopes  and,  with  undulating  edges,  touch 
on  the  green  fields  of  the  bottoms.  One  may  imagine  oneself  away  in 
the  thaler  of  the  Spessartwald,  away  in  the  story-land  of  William  Morris ; 
for  is  one  not  at  the  roots  of  the  mountains  ? 

With  any  luck,  one  may  find  a  western  road  that  will  take  one 
down  to  Lyminge.  One  reaches  it  from  Itchin  Hill  by_a  quite  easily 
discoverable  highway.  Lyminge  itself,  until  quite  late  years,  was  a  for- 
gotten village,  very  slumberous  and  pleasant,  lying  in  one  of  the  folds 
of  the  downs.  The  beautiful  old  church  formed  a  sort  of  pleasant  centre 
for  the  eye.  But  that  is  all  changed.  The  place  has  become  a  sort  of 
summer  resort  for  the  Folkestone  populace.  The  old  church  stands 
disconsolately  on  the  edge  of  a  number  of  mushroom  erections,  whose 
brilliant  red  sides  and  staring  slate  roofs  fill  the  valley  and  climb  the 
opposite  slopes.  The  church  itself  is  for  the  moment  untouched,  but 
they  talk  of  restoring  that  too.  It  is  interesting  rather  as  a  monument 
of  immense  antiquity  than  as  an  architectural  achievement.  It  conveys 
the  impression  of  mellowness,  of  tranquillity,  of  contemplative  rest,  as 
well  as  any  building  ever  did.  One  knows  at  once  the  character  of 
la  douce  et  devoude  Ethelburga  on  seeing  the  building  that  she  chose 
to  lay  herself  in.  The  stonework  of  the  walls  is  a  curious,  pleasant 
conglomeration  of  ancient  stones  that  the  builders  must  have  found 
lying  about  ready  to  their  hands,  that  they  quarried  out  of  the  walls 
of  the  basilica.  It  is  the  eastern  end  of  the  building  that  is  the  most 
individual,  the  humble  little  choir.  This,  with  its  rough  walls,  its 
primitive  air,  is  the  legacy  of  the  spirit  of  Ethelburga,  of  the  queen 
who  fought  the  good  fight  for  years  and  years,  and  at  the  end  rested 
humbly  and  contentedly  in  an  upland  valley.  The  rest  of  the  church, 
for  which  we  have  to  thank  successive  archbishops  and  their  vicars,  is 
by  comparison  clumsy  and  uninteresting.  The  church  contains  a  primi- 
tive piscina  of  the  rudest  possible  early  workmanship,  and  a  little  early 
wood-carving.     On  the  outer  wall  is  a  tablet  which  states— perhaps  on 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  237 

the  authority  of  Canon  Jenkins — that  in  the  self-same  spot  the  remains 
of  St  Ethelburga  rested  until  they  were  by  St  Dunstan  translated  to 
Canterbury.  Inequalities  in  the  ground  of  the  churchyard  to  the  south- 
west of  the  church  mark  the  site  of  the  quondam  basilica  and  nunnery. 

A  little  farther  up  the  valley  lies  Elham,  a  place  which,  judging 
from  the  size  of  the  half-timbered  houses  that  give  on  to  what  was 
once  its  market-place,  must  have  been  of  some  wealth  and  pretensions. 

The  length  of  the  valley  is  intermittently  watered  by  a  little  stream 
of  the  kind  locally  known  as  an  eel-bourne.  This  sometimes  runs,  some- 
times leaves  its  course  dry,  without  much  apparent  connection  with  the 
quantity  of  the  rainfall.  When  it  chooses  to  be  in  evidence  it  adds 
much  to  the  beauty  of  the  valley  bottom,  winding  along,  a  thin  thread 
of  silver  among  the  green  of  the  pastures. 

As  one  travels  north  one  reaches  the  country  of  the  Ingoldsby 
Legends,  Barham  itself  stands  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  valley, 
its  church  boldly  placed  on  a  jut  of  the  hillside.  Tappington  Hall, 
still  a  fine  building,  stands  in  the  adjoining  parish  of  Denton. 

If  one  continues  to  follow  the  northward  road  for  a  few  miles,  one 
has  a  glimpse  of  Canterbury  spire,  Bell  Harry  tower  rising  white  and  still 
above  the  sea  of  roofs.  Striking  off  from  the  road  and  taking  any  one 
of  the  cart-tracks  that  ascend  the  western  hillsides,  one  will  find  oneself 
at  once  in  country  very  like  that  to  the  north  of  Paddlesworth  —  a  for- 
gotten country  of  forgotten  peace.  It  is  a  little  difficult  to  find  one's 
way  about  it :  no  map  ever  succeeded  in  placing  what  roads  there  are 
in  anything  like  their  just  positions ;  but  if  one  is  not  pressed  for  time, 
has  a  taste  for  brooding  hollows,  green  dales,  and  bird-filled  shaves,  one 
may  do  far,  far  worse  than  allow  oneself  to  get  lost  in  these  parts.  After 
a  time  one  will  strike  one  of  the  Hardreses  or  Stelling  Minnis.  All  the 
villages  of  this  part  suggest  the  story  of  Rip  van  Winkle  —  they  sleep 
for  ever,  each  with  its  "little  patch  of  sky  and  little  lot  of  stars,"  for- 
gotten and  content  to  be  forgotten. 


238  THE    CINQUE  PORTS. 

Hardres,  with  its  French  name,  contains  the  oldest  church  in  this 
part  of  the  country  —  the  oldest  in  the  realm,  if  its  upholders  are  to 
be  believed.  It  may  have  had  the  vigour  to  build  its  church,  but 
since  those  days  it  has  never  awakened  sufficiently  to  pull  it  to  pieces 
again — until  the  present  day.  From  here  too,  however,  in  late  days 
an  appeal  has  gone  forth  for  funds  for  the  restoration  of  the  church. 

Stelling  Minnis  is  a  village  of  another  type.  The  uplands  on 
which  it  stands  were  at  one  time  common-land.  This,  however,  was 
gradually  appropriated  by  squatters,  and  now  the  patches  of  enclosed 
ground  cover  the  greater  part.  The  squatters'  cottages  are  for  the 
most  part  surrounded  by  high  quicken  hedges,  so  that  in  the  more 
populous  quarters  one  walks  in  a  kind  of  maze  of  shut  -  in,  soft 
roads,  with  no  apparent  trace  of  human  beings.  If  philologists  are  to 
be  believed,  Stelling  Minnis  must  be  of  exceedingly  ancient  origin, 
"  Minnis "  being  derived  from  a  British  word  meaning  a  steep  place. 
The  inhabitants  of  these  uplands  are  on  the  one  part  incredibly  taci- 
turn, on  the  other  as  remarkably  the  opposite.  One  explains  it  by 
the  theory  that  the  first,  from  dwelling  so  long  in  solitude,  have  lost 
their  powers  of  speech ;  the  second  are  thirsting  for  an  opportunity 
of  communication  with  the  outer  world.  Of  this  last  they  would  seem 
to  have  excessively  little.  One  meets  them  sometimes  on  Stone  Street 
bound  for  Canterbury  market.  Their  vehicles  are  of  the  most  ancient 
type  ;   one  sees  covered  gigs  of  the  sort  that  Norman  auctioneers  affect 

I    once   saw   even   the   usually  accounted   extinct  "whiskey"  used  for 

the  transportation  of  bundles  of  fagots.  Out  in  the  great  world  these 
people  have  a  forlorn  air,  though  at  home  they  are  dictatorial  enough. 
They  seem  to  make  their  livings  by  /es  petites  industries — by  turning 
fagots  into  bundles  of  firewood,  by  fabricating  twig  -  besoms  and  what 
not  of  the  kind.  They  are,  too,  not  unlike  the  French  peasantry  in 
another  way.  They  bring  to  market  things  of  apparently  infinitesimal 
value.     As   in   Normandy,  one  may  see  the  women  set  out  to  walk  to 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  239 

a  very  distant  market  on  the  chance  of  selling  a  pair  of  fowls  or  a 
solitary  pound  of  butter. 

Stone  Street,  the  Roman  highway,  lies  quite  close  at  hand.  It  is 
a  broad,  well-kept  road,  though  normally  an  exceptionally  solitary  one. 
The  local  derivation  of  the  name  is  attributed  to  the  fact  that  the 
builders  of  Canterbury  bore  along  this  way  the  stones  that  they  needed 
for  their  building,  that  they  quarried  at  Lympne  ;  I  was,  at  least,  so 
informed  by  a  carrier  who  had  travelled  the  road  every  day  of  his  life. 
From  the  Street  one  may  see  enormous  stretches  of  country.  From 
where  it  begins  its  first  descent  towards  Canterbury  one  catches  a 
glimpse  of  the  cliffs  and  the  sea  right  away  on  the  north  coast  of 
Kent;  from  the  Farthing,  at  the  top  of  Hempton  Hill,  one  sees  not 
only  the  sea  and  the  coast  of  France,  but  an  immense  tract  of  the 
county  and  a  part  of  that  of  Sussex.  There  is,  indeed,  nothing  to 
prevent  one's  seeing  the  Leith  Hill  range  in  Surrey,  though  I  must 
confess  never  to  have  found  a  day  clear  enough  for  the  sight. 

The  road  on  descending  Hempton  becomes  excessively  steep  in 
gradient  and  very  treacherous  in  its  turnings.  By  the  lime-quarry  half- 
way down  there  is  as  often  as  not  a  traction-engine  in  waiting  to  stop 
the  career  of  the  unwary  cyclist.  The  quarry  itself  is  vastly  pictur- 
esque. The  quarrymen  have  cut  away  a  sheer  cliff  of  white  chalk,  on 
the  top  of  which  grows  a  thin  fringe  of  fir-trees.  At  night,  when  the 
kilns  are  lit  and  cast  a  pale  reddish  glow  on  the  towering  white  mass 
beyond,  the  scene  is  uncomfortably  weird.  The  place  is,  moreover, 
haunted,  for  every  night  at  twelve  of  the  clock  Lord  Rokeby  rides 
down  the  hill  in  his  carriage  -  and  -  four.  He  is  additionally  dreadful, 
since  he  himself  is  headless.  The  poor  lord  seems  to  be  as  eccentric 
a  ghost  as  he  was  a  nobleman.  He  entertains,  so  they  say,  a  rooted 
aversion  to  fish-carts  and  travelling  fishmongers,  who  are  invariably 
stopped  by  his  lordship  if  they  venture  to  ascend  Hempton  after  night- 
fall.    This,   at  least,   occurred  on  two  or  three  occasions  when   I   lived 


240  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

in  an  adjoining  parish.     What  the  ghost  did  to  the  fishmonger   I  was 
never  able  to  discover. 

Legends  of  Lord  Rokeby  bulk  largely  among  those  of  the  countryside. 
He  did  his  own  hedging  and  ditching,  consorted  largely  with  drovers  and 
tramps,  to  whom  he  behaved  like  Haroun-al-Raschid.  He  had  bags  and 
bags  full  of  golden  guineas,  and  so  on,  and  so  on,  and  so  on.  He  is,  of 
course,  said  to  have  been  crossed  in  love.     Perhaps  he  was. 

A  contemporary  picture  of  the  eccentric  peer  represents  him  as  having 
"  too  much  of  the  phlegm  of  the  philosopher  to  appear  amiable,  and  too 
little  of  the  sage  to  attract  reverence.  His  temper,  whilst  it  merited 
commendation  for  a  bold  disdain  of  the  restraints  of  fashion  and  encum- 
brances of  etiquette,  was  sometimes  censured  as  pertinacious ;  and  the 
singularity  of  his  opinions  were  \_sic\  more  frequently  referred  to  a  want 
of  common-sense  than  to  the  possession  of  superior  talents  and  sagacity." 
"Near  the  stables,"  says  Fussell  in  his  account  of  Mount  Morris,  "at  the 
corner  of  the  shrubbery,  still  remains  the  greenhouse,  converted  by  Lord 
Rokeby  into  a  bath ;  and  hither  at  all  seasons,  amidst  the  severest  winter 
frosts  equally  as  under  the  genial  influence  of  the  summer's  sun,  his 
lordship  constantly  resorted,  once,  twice,  or  even  thrice  a -day,  and 
sometimes  passed  whole  hours  in  the  water,  stretched  apparently  at 
his  ease  in  a  shallow  basin,  his  silver  beard,  which  had  been  suffered  to 
grow  to  an  enormous  length,  floating  loosely  on  the  surface." 

Farther  down  the  road,  in  the  very  bed  of  the  valley  of  the  Stour, 
stands  the  ancient  building  known  as  Rosamond's  Bower.  Here  that 
lady,  who  might,  like  Lord  Rokeby,  have  been  described  as  "inspired 
by  a  bold  disdain  of  the  encumbrances  of  etiquette,"  is  said  to  have 
been  installed  by  Henry  .II.  History  does  not  corroborate  the  legend, 
but  there  are  no  grounds  for  an  absolute  denial  of  it.  From  very  early 
days  Westenhanger  House  appears  to  have  been  a  royal  manor,  frequently 
being  granted  to  great  families,  and  as  frequently  reverting  to  the  Crown. 
It  retained  a  good  deal  of  its  magnificence  in  the  sixteenth  century,  for 


PORT  OF  HYTHE  AND    TOWN  OF  FOLKESTONE.  241 

we  read  that  Elizabeth  stopped  in  her  house  at  Westenhanger  whilst  on 
her  progress  through  Kent  in  1573.  One  can  still,  in  spite  of  the  attempts 
of  an  eighteenth-century  Mr  Champneys  to  make  the  place  a  presentable 
abode,  realise  the  grandeur  of  its  former  proportions.  The  moat  is  dry 
but  still  traceable,  the  roofless  chapel  lies  open  to  the  skies,  and  one  of 
the  towers  of  Edward  III.'s  time  frowns  down  upon  the  railway  line. 
The  place  has  become  during  the  last  few  years  the  headquarters  of  a 
race-meeting. 

Shortly  after  leaving  Westenhanger  one  strikes  the  road  from  London 
to  Hythe,  and  reaches  the  latter  town  walking  pleasantly  in  the  shade  of 
trees  of  a  certain  magnificence,  trees  growing  on  the  charming  Sandling 
Park  estate.  The  little  hamlet  of  Pedlinge,  at  the  top  of  Hythe  Hill,  may 
very  possibly  have  been  the  place  of  meeting  of  the  courts  of  Shepway. 
A  dismantled  dwelling-house  at  the  corner  where  the  road  descends  to 
Hythe  has  some  of  the  appearance  of  having  been  a  sort  of  court-house, 
though,  as  far  as  one  knows,  the  Shepway  courts  were  held  in  the  open 
air.  The  place,  at  least,  fulfils  the  one  condition  that  one  knows  of,  that 
of  being  about  half  a  mile  to  the  east  of  Lympne. 


242 


CHAPTER   XII. 

THE   PORT   OF   DOVER   AND    ITS    MEMBER,   FAVERSHAM. 

Says  Edgar  Allan   Poe,   "  To  write   an   ode   upon   the   oil   of  Bob  is  all 
sorts  of  a  job."      To  write  a  history   of  the    port  of   Dover  is  almost 
as  difficult.     With  the  least  tendency  to   digressiveness   one  would  find 
oneself  writing  a  history  of  England.     Even  with  the  strictest  limitation 
one  is  writing  the  history  of  the  "  clavis   et  repagulum  totius  regni " — 
the  key  and  the  lock  of  the  whole  realm.     This,  at  least,  is  the  opinion, 
these  are  the  words,  of  Matthew  Paris.     The  history  of  the  town  com- 
mences with  the  history  of  the  kingdom — the    histories    of  neither   are 
yet  finished.     And  these,  one  must  remember,  are  histories  in  the  large. 
The  history  of  Dover  has   been  even  more  than  a  merely  national  one 
—it  has  been  universal,  has  affected  the  history  of  races  as  of  individual 
nations.     To   England   it  has  been  of  importance — is   of  importance  as 
a  fortress.      By  its  very  strength    it    has    done    something   to    keep  the 
world    at   peace.      When    nations    war    they  think    first    of  the    strength 
of   the    opponent.       So    nations,    thinking    of   war   with    England,    have 
again    and    again  been  deterred   by  thoughts    of  the    strength    of  towns 
like    Dover.       One    knows    that,   when    England    lay    at    the    proud   foot 
of  a   conqueror,   when    "Lewis    the    Dauphin"    overran    the    country    in 
the  times   of  King  John— overran  the  country,  but  failed  before  Dover 
Castle — that  wiser  king,  his  father,  sware  "by  Saint  James  Arme  (which 


PORT  OF  DOVER  AND  ITS  MEMBER,   FAVERSHAM.  243 

was  his  accustomed  oathe)  that  he  had  not  gained  one  foot  in  England." 
Thus  Dover  —  as,  they  say,  do  modern  armaments  —  made  for  peace. 
As  a  fortress  it  is  national,  but  as  a  port  it  is  more — it  is  cosmopoHtan ; 
for  who,  speaking  of  the  Bath  Road  as  it  passes  through  a  hamlet 
of  three  houses,  calls  it  after  the  name  of  that  hamlet  ?  So  who  speaking 
of  Dover,  a  milestone  on  the  highway  from  earth's  end  to  earth's  end, 
can  call  it  merely  English  ?  Dover  thus  has  a  double  history,  that  of  a 
place  which  has  kept  foes  out,  that — a  larger  one — of  a  port  through  which 
the  tides  of  the  world  flow. 

No  very  authentic  traces  of  early  British  occupancy  of  Dover  are  to 
be  discovered.     Juvenal  addresses  his  emperor  in  these  words  : — 

"  Regem  aliquem  capies,  aut  de  temone  Britanno 
Excidet  Arviragus," 

and  from  these  words  the  sixteenth-century  archaeological  fiction  writers 
evolved  theories  that  connect  Arviragus  with  Dover.  Thus  Darell — one 
of  the  more  trustworthy  of  them — in  his  history  of  Dover  Castle,  says  :  ^ 
"  Romanorum  castrum  et  auxit,  et  fossis  quam  poterat  altissimis  munivit 
ut  Britanni  ea  ratione  facilius  eorum  audacise  resisterent.  .  .  .  Neque  his 
quiescens,  ipsum  mare  mira  quadam  arte  exclusit,  et  ne  quis  postea 
portus  Rutupini  commoditate  frueretur,  perfecerat,  unde  ipsum  castrum 
nomen  invenit  novum,  id  est,  Dofris,  vel  Dobris,  vel  Doris.  Nam, 
cum  ante  id  tempus,  id  oppidum  Rupecestrum,  id  est,  castrum  super 
rupem,  Britanni  nominarunt,  propter  impeditum.  vel  prcedum  portum 
Doris  vocabatur."  This  forms,  upon  the  whole,  about  as  pleasant  an 
admixture  of  fiction  and  misinformation  as  one  could  conveniently  light 
upon.  It  presupposes  the  building  of  the  Roman  castle  by  Julius 
Caesar — a  theory  as  absurd  as  that  of  the  Julian  building  of  the  tower 
of  the  Brutian  town  called  Trinovant. 

1  The  History  of  Dover  Castle,  by  the  Rev.  scribed  from  the  original,  in  the  library  of  the 
W.  Darell,  Chaplain  to  Queen  Elizabeth.  This  College  of  Arms,  under  the  inspection  of  William 
remained  in  MS.  until  1797,  when  it  was  "tran-      Adys,  Esq.,  then  Norroy  King  of  Arms." 


244  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  conceivable  that  Caesar  may  have  been 
in  Dover,  but  it  is  impossible  that  he  should  have,  during  his  short 
stay,  founded  any  castle  so  considerable  as  that  of  Dover.  Darell, 
nevertheless,  makes  Mandubratius  the  first  Constable  of  Dover  Castle. 

As  to  the  name  of  the  place,  the  most  reasonable  theory  seems 
to  be  that  it  is  a  derivative  of  the  British  word  "Dwr"  —  a  river. 
Ptolemy  calls  it  Darvenum  and  Darvernum  —  and  in  the  Itinerary  of 
Antoninus  it  is  referred  to  as  Dubris.  Who  among  the  Romans  founded 
the  castle  and  when  he  took  the  work  in  hand  one  does  not  know.  The 
tower  in  the  castle,  which  is  usually  called  a  pharos,  is  very  similar 
in  design  to  the  tower  in  Boulogne  which  is  said  to  have  been  built 
by  Caligula. 

But  whoever  founded  the  fortresses  of  Dover  must  have  seen  them 
rise  speedily  to  a  great  height.  It  is  significant  enough  that  of  all  the 
south-eastern  towns  under  the  command  of  the  Count  of  the  Saxon  Shore 
Dover  is  the  only  one  that  became  a  Cinque  Port.  The  others  were 
mostly  near  the  towns  that  succeeded  to  their  dignities,  but  Dover 
retained  them  from  the  first.  Lyon,  the  historian  of  Dover,  rather 
acutely  makes  a  point  on  the  side  of  the  upholders  of  the  antiquity 
of  the  Roman  fortifications  at  Dover.  He  was  the  first  to  notice  that 
the  pharoses  were  built  of  what  he  calls  "tophus  ....  a  stalactical 
concretion,  formed  under  water."  He  argues  that  this  was  imported 
by  the  Romans  on  account  of  its  superior  lightness,  and  that,  since 
they  were  under  the  necessity  of  bringing  the  stone  from  over  seas, 
they  must  have  done  so  before  they  had  been  long  enough  in  the 
country  to  discover  quarries. 

Dover  under  the  Romans  was,  no  doubt,  a  sufficiently  spectacular 
town.  One  must  imagine  it  rather  rigid,  perhaps  rather  ugly,  as  Roman 
towns  must  have  been.  On  the  eastern  and  western  hills  stood  the  two 
pharoses,  later  the  castle  arose,  then  perhaps  the  walls  of  Adrian  and 
Severus,  then  a  magnificent  bath,  then  a  Christian  church.      One   must 


PORT  OF  DOVER  AND  ITS  MEMBER,  FAVERSHAM.  245 

fill  up  the  rest  of  the  town  with  barracks,  villas,  hovels,  and  what  not ; 
must  imagine  Watling  Street  running  straight  into  it  —  into  a  town, 
rather  white,  rather  glaring,  a  place  resembling  in  character  the  convict 
prison  that  is  gradually  slipping  over  the  present  edges  of  the  eastern 
cliffs. 

The  form  of  the  town  slightly  differed  from  its  shape  of  to-day. 
The  harbour  ran  farther  inland,  the  cliffs  more  out  to  sea.  In  times  of 
excavation,  in  places  so  far  inland  as  Charlton,  numbers  of  marine  remains 
have  been  found — anchors,  piles  encrusted  with  sea-shells,  and  what  not. 
Indeed,  the  soil  between  that  place  and  the  present  harbour  is  still  found 
to  be  composed  of  alternating  ridges  of  shingle  and  sand.  Leland  says  : 
"  The  ground  which  lyeth  up  betwixt  the  hiUes  is  yet,  in  digging,  found 
wosye."  This  ground  in  Roman  times  would  not  seem  to  have  been 
altogether  oozy.  In  a  pamphlet  written  by  Mr  Knocker,  the  late  town- 
clerk  of  Dover,  there  is  a  minute  account  of  a  curious,  gigantic  structure, 
in  appearance  like  an  enormous  chicken-crate,  that  was  unearthed  during 
the  foundation -making  in  this  neighbourhood.  There  seems  little  doubt 
that  this  was  the  framework  of  a  road  across  a  swampy  strip  of  ground. 
It  led  in  the  direction  of  the  Roman  bath.  The  bath  itself  was  a 
comparatively  large  building,  was  unearthed  in  the  early  part  of  last 
century  and  demolished  shortly  afterwards.  It  stood  near  the  site  of 
the  church  of  St  Mary  the  Virgin,  and  appears  to  have  been  built  by 
the  Roman  troops  stationed  in  the  place.  Tiles  stamped  C.  I.  BR. 
have  at  least  been  found  in  the  floor  of  the  sudatorium — ^and  Lyon 
interprets  the  letters  as  signifying  Cohors  Prima  Britannica.  The  troops 
stationed  in  the  town  have  been  identified  as  the  Second  Augustan 
Legion  —  a  legion  which  was  raised  by  Augustus  and  sent  from 
Germany  into  Britain,  under  the  command  of  Vespasian.  For  several 
centuries  it  garrisoned  the  western  parts  of  the  island ;  but,  as  the  troubles 
of  the  Roman  Empire  grew  great,  it  was  rembved  nearer  home — to  the 
Rutupian  ports,  the  first  cohort  being  stationed  in   Dover — in  a.d.  364 


246  THE    CINQUE  PORTS. 

or  367.  The  bath  is  thus  one  of  the  later  monuments  of  the  Roman 
stay  in  the  country.  Its  position  seems  to  prove  that  the  waters  of 
the  harbour  had  already  to  some  extent  receded  from  among  the  hills. 

Another  of  the  possibly  Roman  monuments  of  the  town  is  the  church 
within  the  castle.  Legend  and  Lambarde  assert  that  this  was  built  by 
Lucius,  the  first  christened  British  king.  Lucius  himself  is  somewhat  of 
a  fabulous  monster.  According  to  the  Calendar  of  Saints  he  was  a  second- 
century  convert  who  cast  aside  his  crown  and  became  a  missionary.  He 
is  said  to  have  died  at  his  hermitage  in  Coire  in  the  Grisons,  where  he  is,  or 
was,  deemed  an  apostle.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  said  that  he  built 
Bangor^  Abbey  and  died  at  Gloucester.  Lucius  apart,  there  seems  to 
be  some  ground  for  the  theory  that  the  church — or  part  of  it — really  was 
a  Roman  structure.  Canon  Jenkins,^  who  supports  himself  with  quota- 
tions from  "  Vicat  in  his  learned  work  '  On  Cements,'  "  and  from  Vitruvius, 
inclines  to  the  theory  that  it  was  built  by  the  Romans  and  restored  by 
the  Saxons — under  Eadbald.^ 

Of  the  other  Roman  buildings,  tradition  assigns  to  the  place  a 
Roman  circumvallation — but  there  does  not  seem  to  be  very  much  to 
substantiate  this.  One  has  the  fact  that  in  the  time  of  the  Normans 
gates  were  called  after  Adrian  and  Severus  —  neither  of  which  are 
Norman  names;  and  Harris  asserts  that  he  saw  a  MS.  in  the  Bering 
collection  which  affirmed  that  Dover  was  walled  by  Severus.  A  burial- 
ground  was  discovered  in   1797  just  outside  what  are  said  to  have  been 

iHe  is  supposed  to  have  been   a  king  "by  of  Dover  has  been  published.     Mr  Statham,  who 

courtesy"    of    the     Romans.       Nennius     says:  is  able  to  devote  much  more  space  to  the  matter 

"Anno  di.  CLXIV.  Lucius  Britannicus  Rex  cum  than  I  can,  agrees  in  the  main  with  my  general 

universis  Regulis  totius  Regni  baptismum  sus-  and  quite  tentative  statement  as  to  the  church 

ceperunt,    missa    legatione    ab     Imperatoribus  in  question.     I  notice,  however,  that  one  or  two 

Romanorum    et    a    Papa     Romano,    Evaristo."  more   than   usually   omniscient    reviewers    have 

-Nenmus,  Gale's  ed.,  vol.  iii.  p.  103.  fallen  foul  of  his  account.     Mr  Statham  pooh- 

^  Arch.  Cant.,  vol.  iii.  p.  29  el  seq.  poohs  the  idea  of  the  Roman  walling-doubtless 

3  Smce  the  above  was  in  print,  Mr  Statham's  quite  rightly, 
very  careful   History  of  the  Castle,  Town,  &c.. 


PORT  OF  DOVER  AND  ITS  MEMBER,  FAVERSHAM.  247 

the  limits  of  the  Roman  walls — a  burial-ground  of  Roman  origin,  con- 
taining urns  filled  with  coins  which  were  undoubtedly  Roman,  though 
Lyon  states  that  the  inscriptions  borne  by  them  were  illegible. 

These  are  the  chief  facts  connecting  Dover  with  the  Romans.  That 
it  was  a  town  of  importance  even  in  those  days  there  is  little  doubt. 
The  fact  that  Watling  Street  there  terminated  its  eastward  course  would 
alone  prove  its  importance  as  a  port,  even  if  one  be  disinclined  to  believe 
other  archaeological  discoveries ;  for  a  folk  so  practical  as  the  Romans 
would  certainly  never  have  terminated  a  road  so  grand,  in  a  country 
so  remote,  at  a  mere  sea-bathing  establishment.  It  is  probable  too  that  the 
harbour  was  finer  then  than  it  has  ever  been  since,  and,  running  up  into 
the  hills,  was  more  sheltered,  was  better  protected  by  the  castle.  Camden, 
indeed,  mentions  that,  in  his  day,  they  were  wont  to  show  "with  wonder, 
great  arrows,  which  they  shot  out  of  basiliscae."  ^  Lambarde,  quoting 
Lydgate  and  Rosse,  adds  to  the  number  of  these  curiosities  "  certain 
vessels  of  old  wine  and  salt,  which  they  of  the  castell  keep  to  this  day 
in  memorie  of  Julius  Caesar,"  and  "which  they  affirm  to  be  the  remain 
of  such  provision  as  he  brought  into  it."  Lambarde,  however,  was  not 
vastly  credulous  in  the  matter.  "  As  touching  the  which,"  he  adds,  "  (if 
they  be  naturall  and  not  sophisticate)  I  suppose  them  more  likely  to  be  of 
that  store  which  Hubert  de  Burgh  laid  in  there." 

Of  Saxon  doings  in  the  town  we  have  not  much  trace  left.  Deeds 
and  charters  referring  to  them  are  few  and  far  between — they  limit  them- 
selves to  a  few  deeds  of  grant  to  the  religious  establishments,  which  in 
later  Saxon  days  began  to  grow  numerous  in  the  town.  Thus,  what  one 
has  to  go  upon  is  merely  tradition,  as  far  as  the  earliest  Saxon  days  are 
concerned.  Lambarde  asserts  that  the  British  held  Dover  for  some  time 
after  the  Saxons  had  overrun  the.  rest  of  the  country;  Darell, 
that    Horsa  was  Constable  of  Dover  Castle,  but  who  Darell's  authority 

Sagittae  illse  magnEe  videntur,  h  basiliscis  solite  emitti,  quas  pro  miraculas  jam  ostendunt 
castellani."— Camden,  Britannia,  ed.  1586,  p.  182. 


248  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

may  be  I  do  not  know.  He  says  boldly,  "  Horsa  also  received  the 
Wardenship  of  the  Ports,  and,  on  that  account,  that  he  might  be  in  their 
neighbourhood,  judged  Appledore  to  be  the  most  convenient  of  all  places 
for  indwelling."  ^ 

This  tendency  to  associate  the  place  with  the  few  celebrated  names 
that  have  come  down  from  remote  times  probably  accounts  for  the 
assertion  that  St  Augustine  reconsecrated  the  castle  church  in  596.  But 
although  the  tradition  is  not  supported  by  documents,  it  is  not  impossible 
of  belief — not  impossible,  if  we  admit  the  Roman  foundation  of  the 
church.  Bede^  indeed  says  that  St  Augustine  was  permitted  by  Ethel- 
bert  to  restore  Roman- Christian  churches,  and  thus  it  is  not  either 
unlikely  or  impossible  that  he  did  reconsecrate  the  church  and  dedicate 
it  to  the  Blessed  Virgin. 

The  next  semi-authentic  Saxon  work  that  we  come  across  is  the 
establishment  of  the  house  of  regular  canons,  called  St  Martin's.  This 
is,  by  Darell  and  the  writers  who  implicitly  follow  him,  described  as  the 
work  of  Eadbald — a  mark  of  his  reconciliation  with  the  Christianity  from 
which  he  had  fallen  away.  Darell  speaks  of  it  as  "a  college  of  six  canons 
with  a  provost,  near  Colton's  gate,  joining  it  with  the  church  I  mentioned 
above.  .  .  ."  Wihtraed,  most  probably  Wihtraed  II. — "alledging  it  was 
not  decent  for  priests  to  live  among  soldiers  in  a  garrison  " — removed  the 
college  to  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  Church  of  St  Martin's,  which  is 
said  to  have  been  built  by  Wihtraed  I.  This  translation  took  place  about 
696 ;  but  the  college  cannot  have  been  for  regular  canons,  for,  as  Canon 
Jenkins  points  out,  the  institution  of  such  bodies  "by  Chrodeo-ano-us, 
Bishop  of  Metz,  did  not  take  place  earlier  than  a.d.  765."  In  the  ninth 
century,    however,    this    canonry,    probably   owing    to    the    policy   of   St 

^  Darell,  Hist,  of  Dover  Castle,  ed.  1797,  p.  .2.  Martini    antiquitus    facta,  dum    adhuc  Romani 

^Ven.    Bade,    Opera    Historica,     Stevenson's  Brittaniam    incolerent,    in    qua,    Regina,   quam 

ed,  vol.  ..  pp.  55,  56  .-  "Erat  autem  prope  ipsam  christianam   fuisse   pra^dixiinus,   orare   consuev- 

c.vitatem,  ad  orientem,  ecclesia  in  honorem   S.  erat."     This  refers,  however,  to  Canterbury. 


PORT  OF  DOVER   AND  ITS  MEMBER,   FAVERSHAM.  249 

Dunstan,   became,  along  with  other  rehgious  buildings  in  the  town,   the 
property  of  the  inevitable  Christ's  Church,  Canterbury.^ 

The  Saxons  did  not  neglect  the  preservation  of  the  castle — nay,  more, 
they  seem  actually  to  have  added  to  its  strength,  for  during  the  progress  of 
the  works  in  1800,  very  extensive  traces  of  Saxon  work  were  found.  Who 
was  responsible  for  this  one  does  not  know  :  it  has  been  put  down  to  both 
Alfred  the  Great  and  to  Godwin.  It  had  certainly  become  a  fortress  of 
the  first  importance  before  the  time  of  the  Conquest,  for,  as  Lambarde  puts 
it,  "  It  was  one  parcell  of  Harolds  oathe  that  he  should  deliver  the  Castle 
and  the  Well  within  it." 

With  the  advent  of  Godwin  the  history  of  the  place  becomes  less  a 
matter  of  speculation.  The  town  and  castle  became  the  headquarters  of 
that  extraordinarily  able  personage.  It  is  usual  to  consider  Godwin  as, 
on  the  whole,  a  villain ;  but  this  reputation  seems  to  have  accrued  to  him 
from  the  fact  that  the  monastic  chroniclers  found  it  necessary  to  abuse  a 
man  who  was  in  constant  rivalry  with  the  saint  and  confessor  and  king. 
Yet,  upon  the  whole,  Godwin,  with  his  strenuousness,  his  determination, 
and  his  vigour,  forms  rather  a  pleasant  contrast  to  the  wavering,  pre- 
varicating, and  totally  useless  king. 

Godwin  himself,  as  Earl  of  Kent,  was  almost  as  much  of  a  king  and 
much  more  of  a  ruler  in  these  parts.  He  seems  moreover  to  have  loved 
his  people  well  enough,  and  to  have  been  well  enough  loved  by  them. 
The  immediate  cause,  indeed,  of  his  great  rupture  with  the  Confessor  was 
his  care  for  his  people  of  Dover.  Thus  says  Lambarde  :  "  For  I  read  that 
it  chanced  Eustace,  the  Earle  of  Balloine  (who  had  married  Goda  the 
king's  sister),  to  come  over  the  seas  into  England  of  a  desire  that  he  had  to 
visit  the  King  his  brother,  and  that  whiles  his  Herbenger  demeaned  himself 
unwisely  in  taking  up  his  lodgings  zX  Dover,  he  fell  at  variance  with  the 
townsmen  and  slew  one   of  them.      But  Nocuit  temeraria  virtus,  force 

^  Mr  Statham  seems  to  disagree  with  me  in      I  believe  to  an  oversight  of  the  proof-reader,  are 
this  account  of  the  matter ;  but  his  dates,  owing      a  little  confusing. 


250  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

unadvised  did  harm.  For  that  thing  so  offended  the  rest  of  the  Inhabi- 
tants that  immediately  they  ran  to  weapon,  and  killing  eighteen  of  the 
Earls  servants,  they  compelled  him  and  all  his  meiny  to  take  their  flight, 
and  to  seek  redress  at  the  King's  hands. 

"  The  King,  hearing  the  complaint,  meant  to  make  correction  of  the 
fault :  But  the  Townsmen  also  had  complained  themselves  to  Godwine, 
who,  determining  unadvisedly  to  defend  his  clients  and  servants,  opposed 
himself  violendy  against  the  King  his  Liege  Lord  and  Master.  To  be 
short,  the  matter  waxed  (within  a  while)  so  hot  between  them  that  either 
side,  for  maintenance  of  their  cause,  arried  and  conducted  a  great  Armie 
into  the  field,  Godwine  demanded  of  the  Kinge  that  Eustace  might  be 
delivered  unto  him  :  the  King  commanded  Godwine  (that,  arms  laid 
aside)  he  should  answer  his  disobedience  by  order  of  the  law  :  and  in  the 
end,  Godwine  was  banished  the  Realme  by  the  sentence  of  the  King  and 
Nobilitie ;  whereupon  he  and  his  sons  fled  over  the  Sea  and  never  ceased 
to  unquiet  the  King  and  spoil  his  subjects,  till  they  were  reconciled  to  his 
favour  and  restored  to  their  ancient  estate  and  dignity."  This  account 
of  the  matter  may  be  accepted  as  correct  in  outline,  and  its  picturesque- 
ness  of  diction  makes  it  better  reading  than  the  versions  of  many  authors 
whose  works  are  impeccable.  Professor  Freeman  makes  a  much  more 
favourable  case  for  Godwin  than  does  Lambarde,  who  detested  him.^ 
Godwin,  indeed,  merely  stood  out  for  justice  against  a  king  foreign  in 
ideas,  a  king  who  was  aiming  at  introducing  into  a  then  free  country  the 
feudal  manners  of  France.     As  a  matter  of  fact,   the  whole   incident   at 

i"Now  that  Englishmen   had  been  insulted  Law   supreme   over    all,   and   Courts    in   which 

and  murdered  by  the  King's  foreign  favourites,  justice  could  be  denied  to  no  man.  ...  Let  the 

the  time  was  indeed  come  to  put  an  end  to  a  magistrates  of  the  town  (Dover)  be  summoned 

system  under  which  these   favourites  were  be-  before  the  King  and  his  Witan   and   there  be 

ginning  to  deal  with  England  as  with  a  conquered  heard   in  their  own  defence."     Prof.  Freeman's 

country.     The  eloquent  voice  of  the  great  Earl  authority  here  is  William  of  Malmesbury,  with 

was  raised  in  the  presence  of  the  King,  probably  whom     Godwin    was     no     favourite.       Norman 

in    the    presence    of    Eustace     and    the    other  Conquest,  ist  ed.,  pp.  136,  137. 
strangers.     In  England  he  told  them  there  was  a 


PORT  OF  DOVER  AND  ITS  MEMBER,   FAVERSHAM.  251 

Dover  was  a  premonitory  grumble  of  the  coming  storm  of  feudalism.  The 
retainers  of  Eustace  of  Boulogne  sought  free  lodgings  in  Dover,  and  being 
the  retainers  of  a  great  lord  expected  no  resistance — they  would  certainly 
have  received  none  at  home.  They  committed  an  outrage  which  could 
only  be  paralleled  to-day  if  a  troop  of  Prussian  officers — retainers  of 
William   II. — took   it   into  their  heads    to    einqtiartier  themselves   in   the 


Near  Sibertswold. 


Dover  of  to-day,  to  slash  off  the  head  of  any  man  who  resisted  them.  To 
understand  Godwin's  position — the  position  too  of  the  men  of  Dover — one 
should  realise  that  such  a  thing  would  be  not  absolutely  impossible  in 
Germany  at  the  present  moment — and  that,  let  us  say,  England  was  as  free 
and  as  law-respecting  then  as  now.  These,  then,  are  the  principal  happen- 
ings in  Dover  up  to  the  time  of  the  Conquest.      In  only  one  thing  does  it 


252  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

differ  from  the  rest  of  the  ports — in  the  fact  that  it  had  guilds  and  a 
"gihalla"  of  its  own.  Why  this  should  have  been  so  is  by  no  means 
certain.  Ireland  indeed  says  that  the  guilds  were  formed  for  the  supply 
of  ships  to  Edward  the  Confessor ;  but  this  seems  to  be  nonsense,  for  one 
is  accustomed  to  think  that  it  was  precisely  the  supplying  of  ships  that 
rendered  the  Five  Ports  (together  with  the  town  of  London)  able  to 
dispense  with  such  organisations.  It  seems,  however,  remotely  possible 
that  the  expression  "gihalla"  is  itself  incorrect— that  the  real  building 
was  nothing  more  than  the  town-hall,  which  by  a  misunderstanding  of 
the  compiler  of  the  item  in  Domesday  Book,  was  written  down  a 
"gihalla."! 

The  Castle  of  Dover  and  its  well  were,  as  we  have  seen,  things 
precious  in  the  eyes  of  the  Duke  of  Normandy.  We  know,  too,  that 
immediately  after  gaining  the  victory  of  Hastings  the  Conqueror 
marched  on  Dover,  having  at  Romney  "taken  what  vengeance  he 
would  for  the  slaughter  of  his  men."  Dover  incontinently  laid  down 
its  arms.  Why  this  was  so  we  have  no  means  of  knowing.  It  seems 
probable  that  its  castle  was  a  moderately  strong  fortress.  Professor 
Freeman,  indeed,  with  his  fury  for  exalting  Harold,  and  without  any 
particular  stated  ground  whatever,  asserts  ^  that  Harold  built  the  castle. 
"And  Harold,"  he  says,  "the  observant  pilgrim  and  traveller,  who  had 
studied  so  carefully  all  that  Gaul  had  to  offer  him,  as  he  introduced  the 
latest  improvements  of  Norman  ecclesiastical  art  into  his  church  at  Walt- 
ham,  introduced  also  the  latest  improvements  into  his  castle  at  Dover." 
Be  that  as  it  may,  there  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that  the  castle  surrendered 


1  One  must  not  forget,  however,  that  the  which  WiUiam  found  was  the  work  of  Harold 
"gihalla"  of  Dover  has  a  somewhat  important  seems  implied  in  the  demand  of  WilUam,  a* 
bearing  upon  the  arguments  re  the  date  of  described  by  William  of  Poictiers,  that  Harold 
incorporation  of  the  Ports  as  a  whole.  I  touch  should  yix'e  up  to  him  '  Castrum  Doveram,  studio 
upon  the  matter  in  the  Appendix,  q.v.  atque   sumptu   suo   communitum.' "     But   surely 

2  Says  Professor  Freeman,  note  2  on  p.  536,  this  hardly  affords  sufficient  groimd  for  definitely 
vol.  iii.,  of  the  Norman  Conquest :  "  That  the  castle  asserting  that  Harold  built  the  whole  castle. 


PORT  OF  DOVER   AND  ITS  MEMBER,   FAVERSHAM.  253 

without  blow  struck.  The  only  hypothesis  which  Professor  Freeman 
brings  forward  to  explain  this  is  that  the  garrison,  which  may  have 
been  intended  merely  to  serve  against  a  sea  force,  had  joined  Harold's 
huscarles  at  Hastings — had  shared  their  fate.  In  any  case,  William 
spared  both  town  and  castle,  though  his  soldiers,  perhaps  irritated  at 
not  being  allowed  the  pleasures  and  profits  of  sacking  the  houses,  revenged 
themselves  by  "accidentally"  burning  them  down.  The  actual  details  of 
the  matter  are  rather  obscure,  according  to  Mr  Freeman,  who  again  relies 
upon  William  of  Poictiers.  The  Conqueror  "made  good  their  losses  to 
the  owners  of  the  destroyed  houses " ;  but  this,  apart  from  its  im- 
probability, is  seriously  discounted  by  the  statements  in  Domesday 
Book.  Again,  he  is  said  to  have  punished  his  soldiers,  but  this  is 
denied  by  the  historian  of  the  Norman  Conquest.  One  knows  only 
that  the  poor  town  was  burnt,  that  William  took  possession  of  the 
castle,  and  after  a  stay  of  eight  days  or  so  marched  off  towards 
London. 

He  seems  by  all  accounts  to  have  left  Dover  garrisoned  by  the 
sick  of  his  army,  and  to  have  given  directions  for  the  increasing  of 
the  fortifications.  According  to  legend  and  to  Darell,  there  then  ensued 
the  famous  march  of  the  men  of  Kent  to  Swanscombe,  in  which  historic 
action  they  were  headed,  so  Darell  says,  by  a  Lord  Ashburnham,^  who 
had  been  Harold's  governor  of  Dover  Castle.  What  happened  then 
is  excellently  described  by  the  excellent  Lambarde,  who,  however,  sub- 
stitutes Archbishop  Stigand  for  Darell's  Lord  Ashburnham.  "After 
such  time  (saith  he)  as  Duke  William  the  Conqueror  had  overthrown 
King  Harold  in  the  field  at  Bat  tell  in  Sussex,  and  had  received  the 
Londoners  to  mercie,  he  marched  with  his  army  toward  the  castle  of 
Dover,  thinking  there  by  to  have  brought  to  subjection  this  country  of 
'    Kent  also.     But  Stigande,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  Egelsine, 

The  Ashburnhams  have  been  long  and  honourably  connected  with  the  Ports,  but  their  peerage 
does  not  date  back  to  before  the  Conquest. 


254  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

the  Abbot  of  Saint  Augustine's,  perceiving  the  danger,  assembled  the 
countrymen  together  and  laid  before  them  the  intolerable  pride  of  the 
Normannes  that  invaded  them  and  their  own  miserable  condition  if 
they  should  yeeld  unto  them.  By  which  means  they  so  enraged  the 
common  people  that  they  ran  forthwith  to  weapon  and  meating  at 
Swanscombe,  elected  the  Archbishop  and  the  Abbot  for  their  captains. 
This  done,  each  man  get  him  a  greene  bough  in  his  hand  and  bare  it 
over  his  head,  in  such  wise  as  when  the  Duke  approached  he  was  much 
amased  therewith.  .  .  .  But  they  as  soon  as  he  came  within  hearing, 
cast  away  their  boughes  and  with  all  despatched  unto  him  a  messenger 
which  spake  unto  him  in  this  manner.  The  commons  of  Kent  (most  noble 
Duke)  are  ready  to  offer  thee  either  Peace  or  Warre,  at  thine  own  choise 
and  election :  Peace  with  their  faithfull  Obedience  if  thou  wilt  permit 
them  to  enjoy  their  auncient  Liberties :  Warr,  and  that  most  deadly 
if  thou  deny  it  the^n.  Now  when  the  Duke  heard  this  and  considered 
that  the  Danger  of  Deniall  was  great  tho'  the  thing  desired  was  but  small, 
he  forthwith  .  .  .  yeelded  to  their  request,  and  by  this  mean  bothe  he 
received  Dover  Castle  and  the  Country  to  obedience,  and  they  only, 
of  all  England,  obtained  for  ever  their  accustomed  privileges. "^ 

Lambarde's  authority  for  this — the  "  he  "  of  his  "  says  he  " — is  Thomas 
Spot  —  more  justly,    I    think,   William   Thome  —  sometime   a    monk    and 


'  Lambai-de  adduces  in  proof  of  this  statement  lady,  Mrs  Walker  of  Bennington.     ]\Irs  Walker 

the  fact  that  "this  Shire  enjoyeth  even  unto  this  herself  can  read,  but  not  write,  and  I  am  quite 

day  the  custom    of  giveallkin   descend  [gavel-  convinced  that  she  never  read  the  chronicles  of 

kind)    dower   of   the   moytie,   freedom  of  birth  either  Thomas   Spot  or  William   Thorne.     She 

and   sundry  other  usages,  much  different   from  told  me  that  she  had  it  from  her  mother,  who 

all  other  countries."     By  "countries"  he  means  had  it  from  hers,  and  so  on  sccculum  saculorum. 

counties.      As   a   matter    of  fact,   however,   the  Now    none    of   Mrs    Walker's    ancestors    could 

Conqueror  granted  similar  privileges  to  a  number  plead    benefit    of   clergy,    and    the    tradition    is 

of  other  places ;  for  instance,  to  the  Port  towns,  without  much  doubt  oral.     For  this  to  be  so, 

to  the  town  of  London,  and  so  on.    The  Birnam-  something  of  the  sort  must  at  some  date  have 

Wood -suggesting   story    is,   however,    worth    a  happened,  though  1  must  not  be  understood  as 

moment's   consideration.     It   is    certainly  tradi-  upholding  either  Lambarde  or  Spot  or  Thorne. 
tional  in  Kent.     I  myself  heard  it  from  an  old 


PORT  OF  DOVER  AND  ITS  MEMBER,  FAVERSHAM.  255 

chronicler  of  Saint  Augustine's  at  Canterbury.  Freeman  and  the  greater 
historians  of  the  day  sneer  at  WilHam  Thorne  and  his  tale ;  they  say 
that  the  famous  men  of  Kent  never  succeeded  in  extorting  anything 
whatever  from  the  Conqueror.  But  this  is  rank  blasphemy.  The 
unhappy  sequel  to  the  story  as  told  by  Darell  is  that  Lord  Ashburnham 
and  Egelsinus  were  executed  outside  the  walls  of  Canterbury,  though 
why  they  should  have  been  I  cannot  say. 

To  return  once  more  to  the  surer  paths  of  sustained  history,  we 
find  that  when  the  Norman  rule  of  the  country  began  to  consolidate 
itself,  Odo,  Bishop  of  Bayeux,  William's  half-brother,  became  the 
practical  successor  of  Godwin,  being  created  Earl  of  Kent  and  incidentally 
Lord  of  Dover  Castle.  Hugh  de  Montfort  was  by  him  chosen  as  its 
constable.  Hugh  de  Montfort  was  a  despicable  sort  of  person,  one  of 
those  who  mutilated  the  body  of  the  dead  Harold,  and,  either  by  his  op- 
pression or  on  account  of  the  avarice  of  Odo,  the  men  of  the  surrounding 
neighbourhood  were  goaded  to  desperation.  They  accordingly  made  a 
peace  with  the  very  Eustace  of  Boulogne^  who  had  used  the  men  of 
Dover  so  badly,  begged  him  to  come  to  their  assistance,  to  make  an 
attempt  to  get  possession  of  Dover  Castle.  A  well-enough  planned  but 
rather  ill-carried-out  attempt  was  duly  made.  Eustace,  at  the  critical 
moment,  proved  himself  the  coward  that  he  had  always  shown  himself 
at  critical  moments ;  the  Dover  men  refused  any  assistance,  and  the  whole 
party  took  to  flight,  and  were  butchered.     This  was  in   1069. 

Very  shortly   afterwards    another   attempt   was    made    on    the  castle 
by  the  allies  of  the  English.     This  time  the  attack  came  from  the  sea — 


'  One  does  not  know  why  Eustace  should  now  is  supposed  to  have  entertained  a  sort  of  titular 

be  fighting  against  the  Conqueror.    He  had  fought  grudge  against  his  powerful  rivals  the  Dukes  of 

against  Harold  and  had  run  away  at  Hastings  Normandy,  and  no  doubt  he  was  merely  fighting 

not  three  years  before.     Some  writers  assert  that  for  his  own  hand  in  attempting  to  gain  z.pied  d. 

the  cause  of  his  enmity  was  the  fact  that  Williapi  terre  in  England.     This  is,  moreover.  Freeman's 

held  prisoner  Eustace's  son,  but  this  does  not  ex-  view, 
plain  why  he  came  to  do  so.    Eustace,  however, 


256  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

from  the  ships  of  the  Danish  alHes  of  Eadgar  AtheHng.  Sweyn's  son 
was,  however,  beaten  off  without  much  difficulty,  and  from  that  time 
forward  the  town  and  castle  remained  the  undisputed  possessions  of  the 
Normans.  That  being  so,  it  seems  a  fitting  place  to  turn  to  the  Domes- 
day records,  which  in  treating  of  Dover  are  rather  fuller  and  more  sug- 
gestive than  in  their  mention  of  any  other  of  the  Ports.  For  that  reason 
I  transcribe  the  entry  nearly  in  full  : — 

DOVERE.^ 

"  Dover  T.  R.  E.  rendered  i8/.,  of  which  money  King  Edward 
had  two  parts  and  Earl  Godwin  the  third.  The  Burgesses  gave  the 
King  20  ships,  once  a-year  for  15  days,  and  in  each  ship  were  21  men. 
This  they  did  in  return  for  his  having  endowed  them  with  Saca  and 
Soca. 

"When  the  King's  messengers  came  there  they  gave  for  the  passage 
of  a  horse  3d.  in  winter  and  2d.  in  summer.  But  the  Burgesses  found 
the  Pilot  and  one  other  to  assist  him.  And,  if  he  wanted  more,  it  was 
hired  at  his  own  cost.  .  .  . 

"  Whoever  resided  in  the  town  and  rendered  assistance  to  the  King 
was  quit  of  Thol  throughout  all  England.  All  these  customs  were  there 
when  King  William  came  into  England. 

"  On  his  very  first  arrival  in  the  town  it  was  burnt,  and  therefore 
no  computation  could  be  made  of  what  it  was  really  worth.  Now  it  is 
appraised  at  ^40,  yet  the  Reeve  renders  54/.  for  it.  To  the  King  24/. 
in  pence  of  20  to  the  ore,  but  to  the  Earl  30/.  by  tale. 

"  In  Dovere  there  are  29  messuages  of  which  the  King  has  lost 
the  custom,  .  .  .  and  these  all,  in  respect  of  these  houses,  avouch  the 
Bishop  of  Baieux  as  their  protector  and  liverer. 

"  In  the  entrance  of  the  Port  of  Dovere  there  is  one  mill,  which  shat- 

'  Dover,  it  should  be  noted,  is  the  first  place  treated  of  in  the  Domesday  Book  of  Kent. 


PORT  OF  DOVER   AND^  ITS  MEMBER,   FAVERSHAM.  257 

ters  almost  every  ship,  by  the  great  swell  of  the  sea,  and  it  was  not  there 
T.  R.  E.  Concerning  this  the  Nephew  of  Herbert  says  that  the  Bishop 
of  Baieux  granted  leave  for  its  erection. 

"  The  Men  of  the  four  laths  agree  that  these  underwritten  are  the 
King's  Laws. 

"  If  any  one  shall  make  a  hedge  or  ditch,  by  which  the  King's  High- 
way is  narrowed,  or  shall  throw  withinside  the  road  a  tree  standing  on 
the  outside  there  of,  and  shall  carry  away  any  bough  or  twig  there  of, 
he  shall  forfeit  to  the  King  100  shillings.  .   .  . 

"Concerning  adultery:  Throughout  the  whole  of  Kent  the  King 
has  the  man,  and  the  Archbishop  the  woman.  .   .  . 

"From  the  robber  who  has  been  condemned  to  death  the  King 
has  the  moiety  of  his  money. 

"And  he  who  shall  harbour  an  exile  without  the  King's  licence,  the 
King  has  forfeiture  for  it."  ^ 

There  are  one  or  two  things  worthy  of  notice  in  this  record.  In  the 
first  place,  Dover  is  nowhere  referred  to  as  Terra  regis — in  the  second 
there  is  the  "  Gihalla,"  which  has  been  already  referred  to.  Exactly  why 
there  should  have  been  this  institution  in  Dover  is,  as  I  have  said,  un- 
known. The  municipal  arrangements  of  Dover,  T.R.E.,  were  probably 
more  complicated  than  those  of  any  of  the  other  Ports.  It  had,  in  fact, 
reached  a  higher  stage  of  development.  Even  in  those  early  days  there 
was  more  or  less  fully  established  an  efficient  packet-service  which  plied 
between  the  port  and  that  of  Witsand  or  Wissant,  a  place  which  has 
since  gone  the  way  of  Winchelsea  and  of  other  of  the  great  ports  of  the 
Channel  and  the  North  Sea.  There  were  in  Dover  twenty-one  wards,  each 
of  which  had,  in  return  for  its  ship-service,  the  right  to  run  a  packet-boat — 
and  it  is  possible  that,  to  the  exigencies  of  this  service,  the  Gihalla  is 
due.  This,  however,  is  nothing  more  than  an  idle  conjecture.  Dover, 
too,  had  its  pilots,  a  service  to  the  state  which  continued  to  exist  until 

'  Domesday  Book  of  Kent,  Larking's  edition. 
R 


258  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

the  year   1853,  when  the  Cinque  Ports  Trinity   House  was  merged  into 

the  national. 

At  some  period  too  Dover  was  certainly  walled  in  by  the  Normans, 
although  so  far  as  I  am  aware  no  mention  of  their  walls  occurs  in  any 
of  the  town  records.  The  names  of  the  ten  gates  occur  frequently  enough, 
however,  among  them  those  of  Severus  and  Adrian,  aforementioned. 

The  mention  of  Odo's  mill,  which  so  damaged  the  harbour,  is,  however, 
the  most  suggestive  of  the  entries  in  Domesday  Book.  Odo,  in  striking 
contradiction  to  the  public  -  spirited  churchmen  of  the  early  medieval 
Church — to  men  like  the  Archbishops  Becket,  Peckham,  and  so  on — seems 
to  have  been  more  firmly  bent  on  self-aggrandisement  than  even  prelates 
of  the  type  of  Courtenay  or  Wolsey.  No  doubt  it  ran  in  the  blood.  His 
half-brother  had  risen  from  his  bastard  birth  in  the  tiny  wall  -  nook  of 
Falaise  to  fill  the  throne  of  Alfred  the  Great.  He  himself  was  minded 
to  sit  where  St  Peter  sat.  To  this  end,  he  exhibited  the  most  incredible 
avarice.  Left  by  the  Conqueror  regent  of  half  the  kingdom,  he  put 
forth  his  whole  force  for  the  purpose  of  dragging  money  from  his  un- 
fortunate subjects ;  with  the  short-sighted  avarice  of  his  kind,  even  set 
about  to  kill  the  golden- egg-laying  goose — as  we  have  seen  him  in  pro- 
cess of  doing  with  his  mill  at  the  mouth  of  Dover  harbour.  To  his 
practices  is  undoubtedly  due  the  unsuccessful  attack  upon  Dover  and 
Dover  Castle.  Treachery  to  the  Conqueror  himself  is  alleged  against 
him,  with  every  probability.  That  too  ran  in  the  blood  of  the  Norman 
rulers.  But,  even  had  he  been  spotless  in  the  matter,  his  great 
accumulation  of  wealth  would  have  rendered  him  suspect,  for  his 
half-brother  William  was  no  more  the  man  to  brook  a  too  powerful 
under-king  than  was  his  canonised  predecessor.  But  unlike  the  shifty, 
unsuccessful  devotee,  he  did  not  seek  by  underhand  means  to  undo 
his  Earl  of  Kent.  He  very  simply  laid  violent  hands  upon  him  and 
consigned  him  to  a  well-deserved  prison.  With  the  cynical  respect  for 
the  Church  which  distinguished  him,  he  bade  his  hesitating  soldiers  chain 


PORT  OF  DOVER  AND  ITS  MEMBER,  FAVERSHAM.         259 

up  not  the  Bishop  of  Bayeux  but  the  Earl  of  Kent,  and  there  was, 
once  and  for  all,  an  end  of  earls  of  that  kidney. 

The  Bishop,  at  the  time  of  his  arrest,  is  said  to  have  been  actually 
on  his  way  to  buy  the  Papal  keys.  Lambarde's  account  of  the  finding  of 
Odo's  wealth  is  convincing  enough,  if  untrue.  "  He  had,"  says  he,  "  by 
rapine  and  extortion  raked  together  great  masses  of  gold  and  treasure, 
which  he  caused  to  be  ground  into  fine  powder,  and  (filling  therewith 
divers  pots  and  crocks)  had  sunk  them  in  the  bottoms  of  Rivers,  in- 
tending therewithall  to  have  purchased  the  papacy  of  Rome." 

The  constableship  of  the  castle  seems  to  have  remained  with  Hugh  de 
Montfort ;  to  have  passed  out  of  the  hands  of  his  family  into  those  of 
Robert  de  Ver,  "the  constable  in  right  of  his  wife,  a  Montfort";  and  after- 
wards from  those  of  Henry  of  Essex,  by  forfeiture,  to  the  Crown.  The 
question  is  an  exceedingly  complicated  one,  and  the  details  involved  are 
too  technical  to  be  of  general  interest.  Moreover,  Mr  Round. has  made 
it  his  own.  The  conclusions  that  he  draws  will  be  found  in  his  '  Commune 
of  London '  under  the  chapter  -  heading  of  "  Castleward  and  Cornage." 
He  also  touches  upon  it  in  a  paper  on  Faramus  of  Boulogne,  who  was 
constable  in  the  reign  of  Stephen.  Says  he  :  "  The  legend  of  John  de 
Fiennes  and  his  heirs  ...  is  blown,  as  it  were,  into  space,  and  should 
never  henceforth  be  heard."  But  a  legend  as  a  legend  has  its  values,  and 
as  such  I  append  the  hitherto  received  version  : — 

From  the  time  of  Odo  the  constableship  of  the  castle  and  the 
wardenshipi  of  the  Five  Ports  were  separated  from  the  title  of  the 
Earl  of  Kent,  and  consigned  to  the  keeping  of  some  one  faithful  to  the 
king  for  the  time  being.  The  two  offices  nevertheless  remained 
for  a  period  hereditary.  The  first  tenancy  fell  to  the  Fynes  or  Fienes 
family  —  a    family   which    is    still    excessively    well    represented,    as    far 

'  It  may  be  as  well  to  observe  that  there  is  nothing  to  prove  that  the  wardenship  existed  at  this 
date. 


26o  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

as  name  goes,  throughout  the  district.  In  order  to  make  the  first  of 
these  constables  the  more  zealous  in  his  service,  the  Conqueror  is  said 
to  have  endowed  him  with  broad  acres  of  immense  value.  Accord- 
ing to  Darell  he  also  presented  him  with  fifty-six  knights'  fees,  "to 
be  bestowed  by  him  on  some  men  eminent  for  their  valour  and  military 
exploits."  Fienes  accordingly  singled  out  eight  knights,  "quorum  nobili- 
tata  essent  facinora"  men  like  William  d'Albranches  of  Folkestone  or 
Hugh  Crevecceur  of  Leeds.  These  knights  were  bound  to  furnish  so 
many  men — the  numbers  ranged  from  five  to  twenty-four — who  formed 
part  of  the  castle  guard.  These  military  services  were  afterwards  com- 
muted for  payments  in  kind  or  in  money.  With  the  establishment  of 
this  kind  of  order  at  the  castle,  the  Dover  organisations  were  ready  for 
the  work  of  a  couple  of  centuries  or  so.  In  the  reign  of  William 
Rufus  the  town  is  said  to  have  seen  the  degradation  of  Archbishop 
Anselm,  who  was  on  his  way  to  do  homage  at  Rome.  Rufus  is  said  to 
have  caused  him  to  be  deprived  of  all  means  of  travelling  save  the 
pilgrim  garb  which  he  wore. 

During  the  contest  between  King  Stephen  and  the  Empress  Maud, 
the  castle  changed  hands  once  or  twice.  Stephen  finally,  towards  1137, 
obtained  possession  of  it  from  Walkelin,  or,  as  Darell  says,  from  John 
Fienes  the  Second.  The  latter  nobleman  was  degraded  and  his  estates 
confiscated,  the  castle  being  confided  to  William  Marshall  qui  regi  erat 
ab  epulis.  Upon  the  accession  of  Henry  II.,  however,  Alan,  the  son  of 
John  Fienes,  was  reinstated  in  his  titles  and  offices.  His  son,  according 
to  Darell,  ofi-ended  John  during  the  absence  of  Richard  in  Palestine. 
The  affair  was  somewhat  similar  to  those  recorded  of  Odo  and  of  Anselm. 
Godfrey,  quern  Henricus  Secundus  ex  concubina  genuit,  having  been 
elected  Archbishop  of  York,  had  set  out  from  Italy  in  order  to  take 
possession  of  his  see.  The  Bishop  of  Ely,  who  was  regent  of  the 
country,  preferred  if  possible  to  retain  the  emoluments  of  the  vacant 
archbishopric.       He   accordingly    issued    orders    to  all    the    governors    of 


PORT  OF  DOVER  AND  ITS  MEMBER,  FAVERSHAM.  261 

ports  in  England  that  the  Archbishop  was  to  be  arrested  immediately 
on  his  arrival.  This  order,  James  II.,  Lord  Fienes,  had  the  misfortune 
to  carry  out.  John,  however,  rescued  his  half-brother  and  put  him  in 
possession  of  his  archbishopric. 

By  John  the  constableship  was  conferred  upon  Hubert  de  Burgh. 
Dover  people  argue  that  Shakespeare  must  have  been  in  Dover  because 
he  has  so  nobly  described  the  cliff  that  bears  his  name.  They  might 
just  as  well  argue  that  he  never  can  have  been  in  the  place  because  he 
has  so  defamed  Hubert,  one  of  the  noblest  of  his  kind.  Hubert  im- 
mediately set  about  the  reformation  of  abuses  which  had  crept  into  the 
government  of  the  castle,  abolished  the  personal  attendance  of  the  knights, 
establishing  a  money  payment  in  exchange.  John  himself  was  forced  to 
take  refuge  in  the  castle,  and  later  in  Dover  he  made  his  famous  sub- 
mission to  the  Papal  Legate.  This  took  place,  according  to  John's 
charter  of  submission,  apud  domum  milihim  Templi  j'uxta  Doveram,  xv, 
die  Mali  anno  regni  nostra  decimo  quario — i.e.,  12 13.  The  precise  site 
of  the  Templars'  house  is  matter  for  debate.  Lambarde  places  it  on 
the  western  hills,  near  the  "  Bredenstone  "  Pharos — and  there  the  remains 
of  a  circular  church  were  found  in  the  opening  years  of  the  century. 
Whether  or  not  this  church  was  the  church  of  the  Templars  is  an 
eminently  debatable  subjectj  which  I  prefer  to  leave  undebated.^  The 
records  of  the  Templars  themselves,  however,  state  that  their  domus 
stood  pear  Ewell. 

We  now  arrive  at  one  of  the  more  glorious  episodes  of  the  history 
of  Dover  and  its  castle — at  the  siege  by  Lewis  of  France.  From  all  ac- 
counts this  was  one  of  the  great  sieges  of  the  world — on  it  depended  the 
fate  of  the  kingdom.  Hubert  de  Burgh  within  the  castle  had  few  pro- 
visions and  fewer  men.  Lewis  held  the  surrounding  country.  He  had, 
as  we  have  seen,  landed  at  Rye,  had  taken  Rochester,  entered  London, 

'  See  for  instance  Arch.  Cant,  vol.  x.  p.  45,  and  vol.  xiii.  p.  281,  &c. 


262  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

and  had  subjugated  at  one  time  and  another  a  great  part  of  the  sur- 
rounding kingdom.  Now  he  was  to  sit  down  before  Dover.  Thus, 
whilst  the  unworthy  John  was  aimlessly  pillaging  his  own  country  and  the 
barons  besieging  Windsor,  De  Burgh,  in  Dover  Castle,  held  together  the 
crumbling  fortunes  of  the  nation  in  1 2 1 6. 

Lewis,  who  had  been  provided  by  his  father  with  a  formidable  engine 
of  war,  called  a  malvoisine,  an  "evil  neighbour,"  spent  several  weeks 
in  trying  to  take  the  castle  by  assault  —  then  several  more  in  trying  to 
starve  out  the  garrison.  Then  the  barons  came  from  the  siege  of 
Windsor  and  sat  down  with  Lewis  at  the  foot  of  Dover  hill.  After  a 
time  dissensions  arose  between  Lewis  and  the  barons.  One  has  the 
story  of  the  Vicomte  de  Melun.  Many  of  them  deserted  Lewis,  some 
returned  to  their  allegiance  to  John,  who  was  still  burning  farmhouses  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Peterborough.  Finally  the  siege  was  raised — or  at 
least  the  evil  case  of  the  defenders  was  alleviated  by  the  entrance  of 
Stephen  de  Pencestre,  who  passed  safely  through  the  French  lines. 
Lewis  drew  off. 

Once  again,  after  the  death  of  John,  the  great  De  Burgh  saved 
his  country.  Lewis  had  been  defeated  at  Lincoln  in  the  year  1217, 
and  the  French  had  collected  another  army  which  sailed  for  London 
on  the  24th  August.  The  army  had  embarked  at  Calais  on  board 
a  fleet  of  eighty-six  of  the  larger  vessels  called  cogs,  all  under  the 
command  of  the  pirata  nequissivius,  Eustace  the  Monk.  This  man  had 
himself  been  a  commander  of  detachments  of  the  Cinque  Ports'  fleet, 
had  been  a  freebooter  under  John,  had  changed  sides,  and  so  on,  and  so 
on.  De  Burgh,  according  to  Matthew  Paris,  had  no  little  difficulty  in 
inducing  the  Cinque  Ports  men  to  set  sail  against  the  French.  They 
had  had  enough  of  fighting  in  the  town  of  Dover.  What  followed  is 
excellently  described  by  Sir  Harris  Nicolas  :  ^ — 

I  Hist,  of  the  Royal  Navy,  vol.  i.  pp.  176-178.      are  Matthew  Paris  and  the  chronicle  of  Mailus 
Sir  Harris's  chief  authorities  for  the  description      apud  Gale. 


PORT  OF  DOVER  AND  ITS  MEMBER,  FAVERSHAM.  263 

"  When  the  French  fleet  was  seen  by  the  people  of  the  Cinque 
Ports,  knowing  it  to  be  commanded  by  Eustace  the  Monk,  they  said  : 
'  If  this  tyrant  land  he  will  lay  all  waste,  for  the  country  is  not  protected, 
and  our  king  is  far  away.  Let  us  therefore  put  our  souls  into  our  hands 
and  meet  him  while  he  is  at  sea  and  help  will  come  to  us  from  on  high.' 
Upon  which  some  one  exclaimed,  '  Is  there  any  one  among  you  who  is 
this  day  ready  to  die  for  England  ? '  and  was  answered  by  another, 
'  Here  am  I.'  The  first  speaker  then  observed,  '  Take  with  thee  an 
axe  and  when  thou  seest  us  engaging  the  tyrant's  ship,  climb  up  the 
mast  and  cut  down  the  banner,  that  the  other  ships  may  be  dispersed 
from  want  of  a  leader.'  Sixteen  large  and  well  armed  ships,  manned  with 
skilful  seamen  belonging  to  the  Cinque  Ports,  and  about  twenty  smaller 
vessels,  formed  the  English  squadron.  .  .  .  The  enemy  were  at  some 
distance  from  Calais  when  the  English  sailed,  but  all  the  accounts  of  the 
engagement  are  defective  in  nautical  details.  It  appears  that  the  wind 
was  southerly,  blowing  fresh ;  and  that  the  French  were  going  large, 
steering  to  round  the  South  Foreland,  little  expecting  any  opposition. 
The  English  squadron,  instead  of  directly  approaching  the  enemy,  kept 
their  wind  as  if  going  to  Calais,  which  made  their  commander  exclaim, 
'  I  know  that  those  wretches  think  to  invade  Calais  like  thieves,  but 
that  is  useless,  for  it  is  well  defended.'  As  soon  as  the  English 
had  gained  the  wind  of  the  French  fleet,  they  bore  down  in  the  most 
gallant  manner  upon  the  enemy's  rear,  and  the  moment  they  came 
close  to  the  stern  of  the  French  ships,  they  threw  grapnels  into 
them,  and  thus  fastening  the  vessels  together,  prevented  the  enemy 
from  escaping. 

"  The  action  commenced  by  the  cross-bowmen  and  the  archers  under 
Sir  Philip  d'Albini  pouring  volleys  of  arrows  into  the  enemy's  ships  with 
deadly  effect,  and,  to  increase  their  dismay,  the  English  threw  unslaked 
lime  reduced  to  a  fine  powder  on  board  their  opponents,  which,  being 
blown  by  the  wind  into  their  eyes,  completely  blinded  them.     The  Eng- 


264  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

lish  then  rushed  on  board  ;  and  cutting  away  the  rigging  and  haulyards 
with  axes,^  the  sails  fell  over  the  French,  to  use  the  expression  of  the 
chronicler,  'like  a  net  upon  ensnared  small  birds.'  ...  Of  their  whole 
fleet  but  fifteen  vessels  escaped ;  and,  as  soon  as  the  principal  persons 
had  been  secured,  the  English  took  the  captured  ships  in  tow.  .  .  . 
It  was  the  first  object  of  the  victors  to  find  Eustace  the  Monk,  and, 
a  strict  search  being  made,  he  was  discovered,  hidden  in  the  hold  of 
one  of  the  prizes,  .  .  .  and  Sir  Richard,  the  bastard  son  of  that 
monarch,  seizing  him,  exclaimed  :  '  Base  traitor,  never  shall  you  seduce 
any  one  again  by  your  fair  promises,'  and  drawing  his  sword,  struck 
off  his  head.  The  battle  was  seen  with  exultation  by  the  garrison 
of  Dover  Castle,  and  the  conquerors  were  received  by  the  bishops 
and  clergy  .  .  .  chanting  thanksgivings  and  praises  for  their  un- 
expected success." 

Amongst  other  benefactions  to  the  nation  is  Hubert  de  Burgh's 
Maison  Dieu  at  Dover.  Of  the  many  charitable  institutions  of  the 
middle  ages  this  is  one  of  the  most  practical,  the  most  beneficent. 
In  days  when  the  pursuit  of  pilgrimages  was  almost  more  of  a  national 
necessity  than  is,  say,  sea-bathing  to-day,  some  such  place  was  an 
absolute  necessity  in  a  town  like  Dover,  where  for  one  reason  and 
another  vast  crowds  of  disconsolate  pilgrims  were  occasionally  huddled 
together.  The  house  was  a  place  of  shelter  for  these.  It  was  adminis- 
tered by  a  master  and  several  brethren  and  sisters,  was  maintained  by 
grants  of  land  from  Hubert  himself.  Shortly  after  its  foundation,  De 
Burgh  resigned  the  management  of  it  to  the  king,  Henry  III.,  who 
dedicated  it  to  God  and  the  Blessed  Virgin  in   1227. 

John  is  said  in  this  house  to  have  held  a  private  meeting  with 
Pandulph,  prior  to  his  resignation  of  the  crown,  and  from  here  too  he 
and  a  number  of  other  kings  directed  their  rescripts  to  the  men  of  the 

1  This  seems  to  have  been  part  of  the  orthodox      Hannekin's  exploit  at  the  battle  of  Lespagnols 
tactics  of  the  Portsmen— cf.  Froissart's  account  of      sur  Mer. 


DOVER  ^CLIFFS 


PORT  OF  DOVER   AND  ITS  MEMBER,  FAVERSHAM.  265 

Ports.  The  house  seems  to  have  been  largely  sustained  by  small  pay- 
ments in  kind,  which  were  doubtless  of  extreme  use  to  the  place.  Thus 
we  read  that — 

"William  and  Thomas  le  Cupere  and  their  mother  gave  thirteen 
pence,  four  hens  and  five  eggs,"  or  "  William  Burmashe  and  his  brethren 
gave  ninety-five  pence,  twenty-four  hens  and  one  hundred  eggs."  One 
imagines  the  good  pilgrims  setting  out  from  Dover  well  fortified  by  a 
meal  off  these  eggs.  Perhaps  they  followed  Caxton's  advice  to  men  of 
their  kind,  to  buy  a  few  hens  and  keep  them  aboard  the  vessels.  Cax- 
ton's book  of  advice  to  pilgrims  forms  excellent  reading  even  to-day — 
there  must  have  been  more  danger  in  bargaining  with  ship's  captains 
than  we  have  to  undergo  on  our  ways  to  the  Continent.  Says 
Caxton  : — 

"  Also  hyre  yow  a  cage  for  half-a-dozen  of  hens  or  chikyns  to  have 
with  you  in  the  shippe  or  galley,  for  you  shall  have  nede  of  them  a 
many  times.  ... 

"  Also  I  counsell  you  to  have  with  you  out  of  Venyse,  Confections, 
Comfortatives,  Grene  Gynger,  Almondes,  Ryce,  Fygges,  Reysons  grete 
and  smalle  whyche  shall  doo  you  grete  ease  by  the  waye.  .  .  .  Also 
take  wyth  you  a  lytyll  caudron,  a  fryenge  panne,  Dyshes,  platers,  sawcers 
of  tre,  cuppes  of  glasse,  a  grater  for  brede  and  such  necessaries.   .  .  . 

"  In  a  shyp  or  caryk  choose  you  a  chamber  as  nigh  the  middes 
of  the  ship  as  ye  may.  For  there  is  least  rolling  or  tumbling  to  keep 
your  brain  or  stomach  in  temper."^ 

We  have  therefore  to  imagine  Dover  crowded  with  these  people, 
going  and  returning,  with  merchants,  wounded  soldiers  —  with  a  whole 
menagerie  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  From  time  to  time  the 
necessities  of  the  kingdom  made  it  necessary  to  inspect  all  who  left  it 
— necessary  at  least  in  the  eyes  of  the  kingdom's  rulers.  Then  a  re- 
script issued  that  all  passengers  out  of  the  kingdom  should  embark  at 

1  Informacion  for  Pylgrymes  unto  the  Holy  Londe. 


266  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

Dover   or   at  other  ports.     In    1336,   for  instance,    Dover  was  the  port 
selected. 

The  question  of  the  Channel  passage  became  in  a  short  time  of 
such  obvious  national  importance  that  the  kings  began  to  pay  attention 
to  it.  Edward  I.  busied  himself  to  some  extent  in  the  matter — in  his 
charter  there  are  to  be  found  a  number  of  regulations  for  the  transport 
service.  It  was,  however,  the  otherwise  not  very  estimable  Edward  II. 
who  put  the  matter  on  a  firm  basis.  His  charter,  which  was  the  founda- 
tion of  the  illustrious  Cinque  Ports  pilot  service,  was  something  more.  ■  It 
entered  minutely  into  the  question  of  the  poorer  pilgrims  and  travellers, 
established  a  court  that  regulated  not  only  the  fares  to  be  paid  but  the 
order  in  which  the  packet  ships  were  to  sail.  "It  was,"  says  Mr  Bur- 
rows, "  expressly  based  on  the  principle  of  giving  fair  play  to  the  poor 
in  the  matter  of  crossing  the  Channel."  Its  rules,  in  disordered  times, 
were  sometimes  set  at  nought,  but  such  as  it  was  it  remained  in  force 
until  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. 

The  town  and  castle  underwent  no  serious  assaults  until  the  reign 
of  Edward  I.  It  is  true  that  that  king,  during  the  reign  of  his  father, 
took  the  castle  from  the  Barons,  but  the  taking  was  effected  without 
any  great  trouble,  and  the  Prince  did  not,  as  he  did  at  Winchelsea, 
proceed  to  reprisals  on  the  townsmen.  During  Edward's  reign,  however, 
the  town  received  a  blow  from  which  it  did  not,  for  years  and  years, 
recover.  The  French  fleet,  which  had  in  1295  been  driven  off  by  the 
men  of  Hythe,  returned  to  its  port.  Nevertheless,  although  Turbeville 
the  traitor  made  no  sign,  it  did  not  remain  inactive.  According  to 
Henry  of  Knyghton,  "about  the  feast  of  St  Peter  ad  Vincula,  the  greater 
part  of  that  fleet  touched  at  Dover  on  the  western  side,  where  no  sus- 
picion of  their  landing  had  been  entertained,  on  account  of  the  multitude 
of  stones  and  the  height  of  the  rock.  The  bravest  of  their  warriors— 
about  15,000  men  — landed  and  'explored'  Dover  from  about  the  first 
hour  until  the  evening,   burning  it  for  the  greater  part.     On  their   en- 


PORT  OF  DOVER  AND  ITS  MEMBER,   FAVERSHAM.  267 

trance,  however,  the  inhabitants  took  to  flight,  shrieking  and  howling. 
The  neighbouring  people  concentrated,  and  the  soldiers  who  had 
the  care  of  the  sea  ran  together,  so  that,  on  the  same  day,  about  the 
nth  hour  they  vigorously  attacked  the  enemy.  About  5000  of  them 
having  been  killed,  the  remainder  of  them  divided,  some  fleeing  into  the 
marshes,  where  they  were  afterwards  slain,  and  what  others  were  able 
reaching  their  ships."  ^ 

A  number  of  incidents  of  the  siege  follow  in  Knyghton's  account — 
in  one  of  them  he  even  does  justice  to  the  valour  of  the  French.  Thirty 
of  their  boldest  men,  he  says,  betook  themselves  to  the  Abbey,  and  re- 
mained fighting  vigorously  until  the  evening,  for  "our  men"  could  not 
hurt  them  in  any  sort.  And  when  at  evenfall  the  townsmen  grew  re- 
miss, and  had  many  of  them  returned  to  look  after  their  goods,  the 
French  broke  out,  captured  a  couple  of  skiffs,  and  made  off.  They 
were  pursued  by  the  townsmen  in  two  ships  of  war,  which,  hoisting 
sail,  succeeded  in  sinking  the  skiffs  and  the  brave  men  aboard  them. 
One  trusts  that  their  valour  received  a  better  meed  where  "the  gay 
pavilions  shine  in  heaven  above." 

One  must,  however,  not  read  the  good  Knyghton  too  much  au  pied 
de  la  lettre  when  he  mentions  5000  as  the  number  of  Frenchmen  slain 
out  of  "xv  millia  hominum."     In  the  first  place  he  was  a  partisan,  and  was 

1  "Circa festum  Sancti  Petri  ad  Vincula  magna  erunt    quidam    enim    fugerunt    in    tegetes,    qui 

pars  ejusdem  classis  applicuit  apud  Dovere,  ex  postea    caedebantur    ab    incolis,    at    cseteri    qui 

parte  occidentali,  ubi  nulla  fuit  applicandi  sus-  poterant    narvigio    fugerunt.       Triginta    autem 

picio  prse   multitudinem    lapidum    et    rupis   ex-  viri  fortissimi   receperunt   se   infrarclausum  Al- 

celsas  ;    Egressique    sunt    bellatores    fortissimi  bathise  spumissime  pugnantes  usquad  vesperam  ; 

circiter    xv    millia    hominum,    et    exploravenmt  ita  quod  nihil  eis  nocere  poterant  nostri  obsi- 

Dowerniam  ab  hora  prima  usque  fere  vesperam,  dentes.      Cumque   in   vesperis   nostri   remissius 

incendenties  eam  igni  pro  magna  parte.     Cum  agerent   et   multi   reverterantur  ab   proelio,  ipsi 

in    ingressu    eorum    fugissent    incolse,    dispersi  quoque  dilapsi  sunt  cum  duabus   scaphis  fugi- 

sunt    omnes    conclamantes    galantes,    inglobati  entes ;   quod  mane   cognito,  insecutae   sunt   eos 

sunt  incolas  compatriotae  et  concurrebant  milites  duse  magnas  naves,  quae  vela  levantes  in  altum 

qui  curam  maris  habebant,  ita  quod  eodem  die  scaphas  cum  hostibus  submersunt." — Twysden's 

quas  hora  xi  hostes  aggressi  sunt  animose,  caesi-  Script,  x.,  p.  2504. 
fuere  quasi  v  millibus,  reliquos  in  partes  divis- 


268  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

writing  of  "  our  men " ;  in  the  second,  5000  was  a  number  which  had 
fascinations  for  the  chroniclers.  Knyghton  represents  the  English  as 
losing  only  eighteen  men  and  a  monk — a  very  small  figure,  even  supposing 
the  French  to  be  hampered  by  the  spoils  of  the  burned  town.  The 
French,  however,  were  certainly  beaten  off. 

The  "explorations"  of  the  French,  though  they  did  not  actually 
kill  Dover,  certainly  scotched  it.  It  had  to  undergo  an  even  more 
serious  blow  shortly  afterwards,  when  a  great  part  of  the  castle  cliff 
fell  down  and  blocked  up  the  harbour.  One  notices  its  poverty  in  the 
records  of  the  ships  it  found.  In  Domesday  Book  the  number  is  given 
as  twenty,  and  this  was  subsequently  increased  to  twenty-one.  But  in 
the  year  of  the  sacking  it  could  find  no  more  than  seven  and,  five  years 
afterwards,  eight.  To  the  siege  of  Calais,  which  occurred  as  nearly 
as  possible  half  a  century  afterwards,  it  sent  sixteen,  against  the  twenty- 
two  of  Sandwich  and  the  twenty-one  of  Winchelsea.  The  damage  to 
its  harbour  it  was  not  able  to  repair  for  many  a  long  year,  and,  as  if 
in  consequence,  it  for  a  time  disappeared  from  history,  though  it  was 
still  used  as  a  place  of  entry  and  departure  by  various  kings.  Thus  in 
1396,  the  ill-fated  Richard  II.  sailed  from  it  to  marry  the  Isabella  who 
was  to  have  brought  him  a  large  fortune.  Unfortunately  for  him  the 
greater  part  of  this  was  lost  in  the  transit  from  Calais  to  Dover,  to- 
gether with  a  number  of  the  royal  ships.  So  reduced  was  the  king 
that  shortly  afterwards  we  find  him  borrowing  ,^40  of  the  Mayor  and 
jurats  of  Dover  town. 

The  office  of  constable  nevertheless,  perhaps  because  it  was  joined 
to  the  Lord  Wardenship  of  the  Ports,  continued  to  be  filled  by  men 
of  the  highest  rank.  Thus  the  Lords  Cobham  frequently  filled  the 
post,  as  did  Edmund  of  Woodstock.  In  the  reign  of  Henry  V.  the 
constableship  was  conferred  upon  Sir  Thomas  Erpingham,  "who  con- 
tributed greatly  to  the  obtaining  of  the  glorious  victory  of  Agincourt, 
by  giving  the  signal  to  and  leading  on  the  archers." 


PORT  OF  DOVER  AND  ITS  MEMBER,  FAVERSHAM.         269 

During  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  the  Dover  people,  together  with 
the  rest  of  the  Portsmen,  favoured  the  White.  They  were  probably 
led  to  do  so  by  the  prestige  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick  —  for  upon  his 
reverting  to  the  Lancastrians,  they  followed  his  example.  Edward  IV. 
revenged  himself  upon  them  by  seizing  the  liberties  of  the  town.  These 
were  afterwards  restored  to  them,  but  for  a  time  the  townsmen  had 
to  be  content  with  a  royal  custos,  in  lieu  of  a  bailiff  of  their  own. 
Dover  was  then  in  a  sufficiently  miserable  state.  The  charter  of 
Edward  IV.  mentions  the  piteous  petition  of  its  barons — indeed  that  of 
Henry  VI.  states  that  the  town  was  ruined  by  continual  inundations  — 
and  by  1500  we  read  that  the  harbour  had  become  useless. 

The  advent  of  the  Tudors,  or  rather  of  the  second  sovereign  of  that 
race,  saw  the  arrival  of  the  better  days  which  had  been  fated  for  the  town. 
Henry  VIII.,  with  the  enlightened  public  spirit  which  differentiated  his 
house  from  either  its  immediate  predecessors  or  its  successors,  saw  the 
immense  value  of  Dover  both  as  a  port  and  as  a  fortress.  Out  of  the 
proceeds  of  the  disestablished  monasteries  he  built  two  forts  in  the 
castle,  as  well  as  a  mole  with  two  rather  quaint  towers  at  its  end. 
Lambarde,  who  lived  during  Henry's  reign,  states  that  that  monarch  ex- 
pended ^68,000  on  the  harbour  works  alone.  Camden  it  is  true 
says  that  a  great  deal  of  Henry's  work  was  much  damaged  by  the  sea. 
..."  Sed  optimi  regis  studium  inharescentis  oceani  furor  cito  deuicit, 
operisque  compages  crebris  fluctibus  verteberata,  se  laxavit."  It  is 
possible,  however,  that  Camden  underestimated  the  work  of  the  "best 
of  kings"  in  order  to  enhance  the  glory  of  "diva  nostra  Elizabetha." 

During  the  reign  and,  to  some  extent  through  the  instrumentality 
of  Henry  VIII.,  the  court  of  Lodemanage  was  established.  "The  court 
of  Admiralty,"  says  Lyons,  "  had,  prior  to  that  time,  been  frequently 
troubled  with  the  trifling  and  contentious  disputes  of  the  lodesmen  re- 
specting their  towns  and  their  hire  for  piloting  of  ships  to  their  respec- 
tive ports;    and,  as  this  business  did  not  require  any  knowledge  of  the 


270  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

maritime  laws,  Sir  Edward  Guildford,  Admiral  of  the  Cinque  Ports, 
judged  it  would  only  be  necessary  to  have  four  respectable  mariners  to 
settle  petty  differences  and  to  keep  order  in  the  society.  They  were 
to  be  called  wardens,  and  to  be  elected  from  time  to  time ;  and  their 
duty  was  to  see  that  all  those  who  were  to  be  admitted  into  their 
society  should  obey  their  rules."  From  this  rudimentary  kind  of  court 
another  was  gradually  evolved  that  during  the  seventeenth  century  be- 
came nearly  as  powerful  as  the  Council  of  Ten,  or  the  Star  Chamber 
Court.  It  gradually  even  extended  its  jurisdiction  beyond  mere  pilotage 
matters,  until  at  last,  complaints  grew  so  continuous  that  the  Lords  Warden 
stepped  in  and  attempted  more  or  less  effectually  to  limit  its  powers. 
The  ultimate  outcome  of  these  modifications,  which  only  ensued  after 
an  incredibly  lengthy  expenditure  of  verbiage  extending  well  into  the 
nineteenth  century,  was  the  corporation  of  Cinque  Ports  Pilots.  This  body 
continued  to  perform  its  functions  worthily  enough  until  the  levelling 
tendency  of  the  unpleasant  times  we  live  in  demanded  the  abolition  of 
Dover  Trinity  House,  and  the  merging  of  the  Cinque  Ports  Pilots  into 
the  ruck  of  the  national  Trinity  House  men.  They  had  nearly  had 
their  day,  by  that  time,  it  is  true.  They  flourished  excessively  during 
the  Napoleonic  wars  and  until  the  introduction  of  steam  as  a  motive 
power ;  but  it  is  sad  to  think  that  a  body  of  men  who  had  handed  down 
traditions  from  the  time  of  Edward  the  Confessor  should  not  have  found 
more  tenderness  in  a  century  whose  chief  need  is  a  just  appreciation 
for  the  lessons  of  tradition  —  a  possibility  of  being  able  to  mould  the 
future  with  some  eye  to  the  institutions  of  the  old  times  before  us. 

Dover  seems  by  the  year  1522  to  have  sufficiently  recovered  to  be 
able  to  accord  to  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  a  reception  said  to  have  been 
unequalled  in  splendour  by  that  of  any  monarch  whatsoever,^     Mary,  too, 

1  The  mentions  of  this  visit  in  the  Rutland  Emperor,  indeed,  would  have  passed  straight 
Papers  of  the  Camden  Society  do  not  altogether  through  the  town  had  not  there  been  a  delay 
confirm  the  report  of  this  magnificence.     The      in  the  arrival  of  his  "baggagis  and  othirs  off 


PORT  OF  DOVER  AND  ITS  MEMBER,  FAVERSHAM.  271 

whose  merits  the  Elizabethan  topographers  discreetly  ignore,  took  no 
little  pains  to  restore  the  harbour.  Her  letter  to  the  bailiff  and  jurats 
is  still  preserved  as  a  testimony  in  her  favour.  Nevertheless,  though  it 
were  over-bold  to  apply  to  Dover  the  rhyme  which  immortalised  poor 
Humpty  Dumpty,  the  town  seems  to  have  been  slow  enough  in  recovering 
its  prosperity.  According  to  the  survey  of  the  7th  Eliz.,  there  were  in 
the  place  no  more  than  "  358  houses,"  nine  of  which  were  uninhabited,  and 
its  "shippers  and  crayers  "  numbered  only  twenty  of  small  burthen,  whilst 
there  were  but  130  persons  engaged  in  "  marchard  and  fyshing."  Shortly 
afterwards  we  find  the  town  petitioning  the  queen  to  come  to  its  relief- 
petitioning,  too,  with  the  aid  of  the  golden  pen  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh. 
"A  marvellous  number  of  Poor  People,"  says  that  humanitarian,  good 
smoker,  and  goodly  poet,  "both  by  the  Worke  till  the  Haven  is  made  and 
after,  by  the  Fishery,  shipping,  &c.,  will  be  Employ'd  which  now,  for  want 
of  Worke,  are  Whipp'd,  Marked,  and  Hanged." 

Elizabeth's  reply  was  her  journey  to  Dover  in  1573 — the  journey 
during  which  the  good  people  of  Folkestone  unsuccessfully  attempted 
to  "  divert  her  favours  to  themselves."  "  Diva  nostra "  remained  for  six 
days  ^  in  the  town,  or  rather  in  the  castle,  and  no  doubt  saw  for 
herself  the  necessity  for  helping  the  townsmen  with  their  harbour.  The 
queen  granted  to  the  town  the  free  exportation  of  "  3000  quarters  of  wheat, 
10,000  of  barley  or  malt,  and   10,000  tuns  of  beer.  .  .  .  The  patent  was 

his  nobles."      Henry,  who  was  awaiting  him  at  "  inspected  the  King's  famous  ship,  the  Harry 

Canterbury,  meaning  to  meet  him  formally  on  Grace  a  Dieu,  and  afterwards  proceeded  onwards 

Barham     Downs,    decided,    on    the    advice    of  to  Canterbury."     In  the  list  of  "  Wynys  layd  yn 

Wolsey,   to   go   to   the   Emperor   with   a    small  dyvers  places  for  the   King  and   the   Emperor 

train,   consisting   of  the   Duke   of  Suffolk,  four  bytwene  Dovyr  and  London  "  it  is  interesting  to 

lords,  a  gentleman  usher,  twelve  yeomen  of  the  note  that  at 

guard,  and  a  few  more.      Indeed  Henry's  visit  f  Gascon  wyne  iii  dolia. 

was  intended  to  be  "known  to  noo  man,   ...  \  Renysh  wynej  Fatt  of  iialnes." 

to  the  intente  that  it  may  appear  to  the  Emperor  — Rutland   Papers,   p.    59   et  seqq.   (ed.   by   W. 

oonly,  his  coming  off  his  own  mynde  and  affection  Jordan). 

towardes  the  Emperor."     The  two  sovereigns  re-  '  Nichol's  Progresses  of  Eliz.,  vol.  i.  p.  336. 

mained  at  Dover  three  days,  (luring  which  they 


272  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

sold  to  John  Bird  and  Thomas  Watts,  ...  and  raised  the  sum  of 
/8666,  13s.  4d."  The  work  proceeded  under  the  superintendence  of  the 
constable  of  the  castle  and  of  other  gentlemen  of  the  county  of  Kent,  but 
they— perhaps  not  being  skilled  in  the  art  of  harbour-making— seem  to 
have  been  rather  cheated  by  the  men  they  employed.  Thus  by  the  year 
1582  they  found  their  funds  seriously  diminished  and  had  very  little  to 
show  for  their  money.  A  further  memorial  was  addressed  to  the  queen, 
and  in  1582  she  granted  further  "monopolies"  to  the  corporation.  Her 
grant  on  this  occasion  was  "threepence  a  ton  upon  every  vessel  loading 
or  unloading  in  any  port  within  the  realm  for  seven  years,  .  .  .  three- 
halfpence  for  every  cauldron  of  coal,  and  the  same  for  every  grindstone 
landed  for  sale."  Whether  this  last  "monopoly  "was  excessively  pro- 
fitable one  does  not  know  —  but  the  whole  grant  must  have  been 
valuable,  and  the  work  was  continued  with  some  success  under  the 
direction  of  an  able  engineer  called  Diggs.^  Elizabeth's  generosity  was 
rewarded  in  1588  by  the  services  which  the  Ports  certainly  rendered 
against  the  Armada.  Besides  the  finding  of  Lord  Henry  Seymour's 
squadron,  they  claim  to  have  built  all  the  fireships  which  did  %o  much 
damage  to  the  Spaniards,  whilst  "the  ship  which  decoyed  the  Great 
Galliass  ashore  at  Calais "  is  said  to  have  come  from  Dover,  This  was 
practically  the  last  shipping  service  rendered  by  Dover  in  times  of  war, 
but  the  place  continued  nevertheless  to  "  assist  at "  a  number  of  dramatic 
historic  events. 

Elizabeth  had  given  the  town  an  elective  mayor,  but  this  privilege 
was  of  short  duration.  In  1606  James  I.  seized  the  lands  and  corporate 
rights  of  the  town,  and  vested  them  in  a  special  board  consisting  of  the 
Lord  Warden  and  seven  assistants,  all  non-resident  in  Dover.  This 
board,  which  has  been  modified  from  time  to  time,  'still  exists — it  now 
consists  or  did  until  lately  of  the  Lord  Warden,  two  Dover  barons,  two 
government  and  two  railway  nominees. 

'  Lyon's  Hist,  of  Dover,  vol.  i.  pp.  158-176. 


PORT  OF  DOVER  AND  ITS  MEMBER,  FAVERSHAM.  273 

During  the  Great  Rebellion  Dover  saw  the  pathetic  parting  of  Charles 
I.  and  his  queen,  who  left  for  France  with  her  daughter,  whilst  the 
wretched  king — who  was,  at  least,  a  good  husband  and  father — returned 
to  Greenwich,  This  was  in  1642.  Shortly  afterwards  the  castle,  which 
was  held  for  the  king,  was  taken  by  a  Parliamentary  force  of  eleven 
men  under  the  command  of  one  Drake  or  Blake,  a  merchant  of  the 
town.  The  garrison  seems  to  have  been  moderately  remiss  and  more 
than  moderately  cowardly,  for  we  read  that  Drake  and  his  forces  first 
gained  possession  of  the  keys  of  the  gate  by  the  expedient  of  threatening 
the  gatekeeper,  and  then,  it  being  night-time,  raised  such  a  clamour  that 
the  castle's  defenders  took  to  flight  in  their  robes  de  nuit. 

The  town  seems  to  have  been  moderately  loyal  to  the  Parlia- 
mentarians, though  a  return  of  "  suspects "  in  the  town  and  surrounding 
country  reveals  the  fact  that  disturbances  might  have  been  possible. 
These  rather  curious  returns  of  suspected  persons  throughout  the  kingdom 
occupy  seven  volumes  in  the  British  Museum  Additional  MS.  series.^  A 
"  suspect "  was  most  carefully  watched  ;  if  he  removed — say  to  London — ■ 
his  removal  and  if  possible  the  address  to  which  he  was  going  was  at 
once  notified  to  the  central  officials.  The  Dover  returns  were  made  by 
one  Reynolds,  "  Registrar  for  receiving  appearances  of  persons  landing 
from  foreigne  parts  at  Dover,"     One  reads : — 

"  Dover  :  Arnold  Braems,  merchant. 

6th  Feb.  1656,  at  the  house  of  Mr  Richard  Harrison,  a  tailor  over 

against  the  Dolphin  Tavern,  in  Tower  Street,  in  the  parish  of 

Barking. 
1 2th  Feb.   Braines  gave  notice  of  removal  to  Dover. 
\ 2th  March.  Againe  at  Harrison's. 
19^?,^  May.  Arnold  Braems  of  Bridge  went  to  the  house  of  Harrison, 

a  tayler,  &c." 

'  Add.  MSS.,  3401 1  et  seqq. 
S 


274  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

Mr  Reynolds,  the  Registrar,  seems  to  have  been  an  unfortunate  or  a 
careless  person,  for  he  is  constantly  upbraided  either  for  sending  his 
returns  wrongly  addressed,  as  thus — 

"  Yrs  of  the  5th  I  received  directed  to  me  at  the  Golden  Cock  on 
Ludgate  Hill,  a  place  utterly  unknown  to  me," — 

or  for  writing  an  illegible  hand. 

However,  four  years  later  all  this  was  changed.  Charles  II.  set  sail 
from  Sluys;  "and  having,  during  his  abode  at  sea,  given  names  to  that 
whole  navy  (consisting  of  twenty-six  goodly  vessels),  he  arrived  at  Dover 
on  the  Friday  following  (viz..  May  25/^)  about  two  of  the  clock  in  the 
afternoon.  Ready  on  the  shore  to  receive  him  stood  the  Lord  General 
Monk,  as  also  the  Earl  of  Winchelsea,  constable  of  Dover  Castle,  with 
divers  persons  of  quality  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Mayor  of  Dover, 
accompanied  by  his  brethren  of  that  corporation  on  the  other  with  a  rich 
canopy.  .  .  .  There  also  did  the  Corporation  of  Dover  and  the  Earl  of 
Winchelsea  do  their  duties  to  him  in  like  sort,  all  the  people  making 
joyful  shouts,  and  the  great  guns  from  the  ships  and  castle  telling  aloud 
the  happy  news  of  this  his  entrance  upon  English  ground."  ^     The  mon- 

1  England's  Joy  :    or  A  Relation  of  the  Most  loved,  in  a  boat  by  ourselves,  and  so  got  on  shore 

Remarkable  Passages  from  his  Majesty's  Arrival  when  the  King  did,  who  was  received  by  General 

at  Dover  to  his  Entrance  at  Whitehall.    Prepared  Monk  with  all  imaginable  love  and  respect  at  his 

by  Thos.    Creak,    1660.      Pepys    gives    a    very  entrance  upon  the  land  of  Dover.     Infinite  the 

similar    account    as    follows:     "2^ih. — By    the  crowd  of  people  and  the  horsemen,  citizens,  and 

morning  we  were  come  close  to  the  land,  and  noblemen  of  all  sorts.     The  Mayor  of  the  town 

every  body  made  ready  to  get  on  shore.     The  come  and  gave  him  his  white  staflFe,  the  badge 

King  and  the  two  Dukes  did  eat  their  breakfast  of  his  place,  which  the  King  did  give  him  again, 

before  they  went,  and  there  being  set  some  ship's  The   Mayor  also  presented  him  from  the  town 

diet,  they  eat  of  nothing  else  but  pease  and  pork,  a  very  rich  Bible,  which  he  took  and  said  it  was 

and  boiled  beef   .   .   .    Great  expectation  of  the  the  thing  that  he  loved  above  all  things  in  the 

King's  making  some  Knights,  but  there  was  none,  world.     A  canopy  was  provided  for  him  to  stand 

About  noon  (though  the  brigantine   that   Beale  under,    which   he   did,   and   talked   awhile  with 

made  was  there  ready  to  carry  him)  yet  he  would  General  Monk  and  others,  and  so  into  a  stately 

go  in  my  Lord's  barge  with  the  two  Dukes.     Our  coach  there  set  for  him,  and  so  away  through  the 

Captn.  steered,  and   my  Lord  went  along  bare  towne  towards  Canterbury,  without  making  any 

with  him.     I  went,  and  Mr  Mansell,  and  one  of  stay  at  Dover.     The  shouting  and  joy  expressed 

the   King's  footmen,  and   a  dog  that  the  King  by  all  is  past  imagination." 


PORT  OF  DOVER  AND  ITS  MEMBER,   FAVERSHAM.  275 

arch,  who  never  did  a  wise  thing,  presented  to  the  corporation  of  Dover 
a  silver  mace  bearing  the  words,  Carolus  Secundus  hie  posidt  prima 
vestigia,  1660,  and  shordy  afterwards  he  allowed  ^^30,000  to  be  spent 
on  the  repair  of  the  harbour ;  so  that,  here  again,  Dover  had  litde 
cause  to  complain  of  a  usually  maligned  sovereign. 

Four  years  afterwards  the  town  was  nearly  depopulated  by  the 
plague,  which  was  carried  down  by  a  young  person  of  the  condition 
of  a  servant  from  London.  As  a  result  900  persons  were  buried  in 
"  the  Graves "  to  the  north  of  Archcliff  Fort.  Dover  continued  to 
be  connected  with  the  flights  and  arrivals  of  sovereigns.  Thus  in 
1689  the  Prince  of  Orange  landed  in  the  town  and  remained  there 
one  day  whilst  holding  a  council  of  war,  and  a  little  later  the  miserable 
James  II.  was  captured,  if  not  at  Dover,  at  least  at  one  of  Dover's 
limbs. 

In  1689  we  find  the  town  petitioning  to  have  its  harbour  made 
good,  alleging  that  by  its  shelter  merchantmen  valued  at  _;^  140,000  had 
lately  contrived  to  save  themselves  from  storms  and  the  French,  and 
that  many  more  would  have  been  saved  but  for  the  shallows  at  its 
entrance.  By  1699  the  entrance  is  reported  as  being  impracticable 
even  for  the  packets.  More  or  less  desultory  attempts  to  reopen  it 
were  made,  probably  with  some  success,  for  in  1714  the  Duke  of 
Marlborough  landed  there.  He  was  received  with  tremendous  ac- 
clamation by  the  mayor  and  corporation,  who  literally  did  not  know 
that  Queen  Anne  was  dead— that  she  had  died  that  very  day. 

During  Anne's  French  wars  a  number  of  French  prisoners— 1500 
after  the  Batde  of  Blenheim — were  confined  in  the  castle.  They  seem 
to  have  been  under  no  kind  of  supervision,  as  far  as  the  inside  of  the 
walls  was  concerned,  and  accordingly  they  completely  sacked  the  interior 
of  the  place,  chopping  up  all  the  floors  and  woodwork  for  firing  and  so 
.  on.  The  castle,  indeed,  seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  of  no  account 
during  the  greater  part  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  according  to  Stukely 


276  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

it  was   as   badly  treated  by  its  custodians  as  by  the   aforesaid    French 

prisoners. 

In  1769  the  harbour  had  reached  so  great  a  degree  of  badness 
that  the  great  engineer  Smeaton  was  called  down  to  inspect  it.  His 
"report"  is  an  excellently  clear-sighted  if  rather  technical  piece  of 
writing.  He  estimated  that  the  cost  of  necessary  improvements  would 
amount  to  about  /9000 ;  but,  as  is  usual  with  these  matters,  only  a  part 
of  his  scheme  was  adopted,  with  comparative  ill-success,  and  in  1782 
the  whole  thing  had  to  be  taken  in  hand  again.  During  the  last  series 
of  wars  with  France  the  importance  of  Dover  Castle  became  glaringly 
manifest,  and  in  1794,  ^^50,000  was  hastily  disbursed  with  a  view  to  re- 
pairing the  ravages  of  the  French  prisoners — though  even  in  1779  several 
new  batteries  had  been  erected.  These,  however,  "fell  into  decay"  within 
a  few  years. 

According  to  the  '  Dover  Directory,'  which  is  assigned  by  the  British 
Museum  Catalogue  to  the  year  1800,  but  which  is  certainly  at  least  ten 
years  older,  the  town  had  already  become  somewhat  of  a  bathing  resort. 
It  was  distinguished  by  an  assembly  -  room,  a  theatre,  two  circulating 
libraries,  and  "a  particularly  fine-toned  harpsichord."  The  "public  break- 
fastings,  card  parties,  and  balls "  were  by  no  means  interfered  with  by 
the  war,  indeed,  Dover  seems  to  have  felt  itself  moderately  secure 
except  whilst  Napoleon  lay  at  Boulogne.  At  this  time  the  fortifications 
on  the  western  hills  were  made,  and  Dover  began  to  assume  its 
modern  appearance. 

In  1 8 14  Dover  again  saw  the  departure  of  a  reinstated  king,  this 
time  Louis  XVIII.,  who  was  on  his  way  to  his  new-found  kingdom. 
He  was  attended  by  the  Prince  Regent,  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  the 
Duchess  of  Angouleme,  the  Prince  de  Conde,  the  Due  de  Bourbon, 
and  a  vast  number  of  people  bearing  historic  French  names.  The  King 
of  France  slept  on  board  the  royal  yacht,  the  Prince  Regent  "at  the 
house  of  Mr  Fector  the  banker."     Then,  as  we  read,   "at  one  o'clock 


PORT  OF  DOVER   AND  ITS  MEMBER,  FAVERSHAM.  277 

(on  the  23rd  of  April),  the  water  being  sufficiently  high  in  the  harbour, 
the  yacht  moved  from  her  moorings  and,  the  sails  being  set,  went  out 
of  the  harbour  in  grand  style.  The  Prince  Regent  went  to  the  North 
Head  to  witness  a  magnificent  sight — that  of  a  royal  yacht  of  England 
conveying  to  France  a  king  who  for  twenty  years  had  been  an  exile 
from  his  native  country.  Immediately  the  yacht  had  quitted  the  harbour, 
the  royal  standard  of  England  was  hauled  down  and  that  of  France 
hoisted  in  its  stead,  saluted  by  the  castle  and  all  its  batteries,  .  .  ,  the 
general  signal  to  form  the  order  of  sailing  in  two  lines  was  made  and 
instantly  executed ;  the  yacht  leading,  the  Jason  (the  Duke  of  Clarence 
commanding)  close  to  her,  and  the  men-of-war,  English  and  Russian,  in 
their  respective  stations.    ..." 

It  is  rather  affecting  to  think  of  this  poor  Bourbon  skittle,  being 
set  up  with  such  a  vast  amount  of  gun  fire,  to  be  shortly  afterwards 
knocked  down  again.  But  Dover  was  not  done  with  its  royalties,  for 
on  the  6th  of  June  the  Czar  landed  with  a  vast  number  of  grand  dukes, 
and  flags  a-flying,  and  what  not;  and  three  weeks  afterwards  he  re- 
embarked  as  ceremoniously.  With  the  Czar  came  the  King  of  Prussia 
and  Marshal  Blucher.  We  read  that  "  the  King  of  Prussia,  after 
his  arrival  at  the  York  Hotel,  created  Marshal  Blucher  a  prince,  by 
the  title  of  Prince  of  Wahlstadt,"  though  why  he  should  have  selected 
a  Dover  hotel  for  the  performance  of  the  ceremony  one  does  not  know. 
It  makes  indeed  a  grotesque  conjunction  to  read  that  the  hotel-keeper 
at  the  same  time  received  the  medal  and  ribbon  of  the  Prussian  Order 
of  Merit. 

In  1820  another  sovereign — the  injured  Caroline — landed  and  was 
uproariously  welcomed  by  her  husband's  subjects  of  Dover ;  and  from 
that  time  onwards  Dover  may  be  considered  as  a  modern  town. 

The  Dover  Records  are  moderately  interesting,  though  they  have 
not  been  as  well  kept  as  those  of  others  of  the  Ports — indeed,  the  larger 
number  of  them  have,  in  one  way  or  another,  found  their  way  into  the 


278  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

British  Museum,  where  they  are  exceedingly  difficult  to  discover.  A  few 
typical  extracts  from  the  record  books,  between  the  5th  and  6th  Phil, 
and  Mary  and  the  2nd  Eliz.,  may  not  come  amiss,  may  add  a  little  to 
one's  knowledge  of  life  in  a  Cinque  Port.  Thus  we  find  Thomas  Wood, 
a  beer-brewer,  fined  the  sum  of  "  iiii/z".,"  and  Cornells  Blank  the  "some  of 
xli.,  for  that  the  said  Thomas,  being  a  Freeman,  hathe  and  dyde  coller 
the  said  Cornells  being  a  forener  to  be  his  partener  and  to  taicke  halfe 
gaynes  with  him  as  a  freman  contrary  to  oure  ordres  and  decres  of  this 
towne."  As  at  Folkestone,  the  dignity  of  the  mayoralty  did  not  seem 
to  protect  its  wearer  from  impertinence — for  we  find  the  jurats  imprison- 
ing one  James  Broker  for  "sarten  unfitting  words  spoken  to  the  s"^ 
Maier  in  the  p'sence  of  the  Court."  The  said  James,  "  for  his  evill  de- 
menour  shall  remain  unto  the  wall  called  the  prison,  there  to  remayne 
untill  iii  of  the  clok  in  the  aftrnone  of  this  day." 

The  husband  of  a  scold  was  in  rather  a  sad  case  in  Dover,  it 
would  seem — if  the  following  entry  is  to  be  regarded  as  typical  :  "  Yt 
is  concluded,  condycended  and  agreed  adjudged  .  .  .  that  Thomas 
Packeman  shall  pay  unto  the  Chamber  xxrtf.  for  a  fyne  for  his  wyfe's 
offence  dewly  approved  to  be  a  scolled  and  also  Robt  Elliott  for  his 
wife's  offence  being  lyickewise  offended  x.r.  and  at  the  mediation  of  the 
Jurates  is  now  moderated  unto  v.r."  Thus  these  poor  men  had  not  only 
to  bear  with  wives  who  were  "scolleds,"  but  had  to  pay  for  being 
scolded  sums  varying  from  ten  shillings  to  eight  pounds  of  our  money 
to-day.  There  was,  however,  a  ducking-stool  in  the  place  which  seems 
to  have  had  frequent  use,  so  often  is  a  new  one  required.  One  of  the 
quaintest  of  entries  is  the  following,  which  occurs  in  the  records  of  the 
last  year  of  Philip  and  Mary-of  the  last  year  of  Catholicism:  "Agnes 
Jarman,  a  widow,  was  accused  and  thereof  justly  approved  that  she, 
one  Simon  and  Jude  day,  at  night,  being  a  Friday,  did  Roast  a  leg  of 
mutton  for  her  guests  to  eat,  and  was  taken  in  the  act,  for  the  which 
offence   it  was  condescended,  concluded  and  agreed   by  the  said   Mayor 


PORT  OF  DOVER  AND  ITS  MEMBER,  FAVERSHAM.  279 

and  Jurats  that  the  said  Agnes  shall,  during  the  time  of  the  market, 
sit  in  the  open  market-place  in  the  stocks,  with  the  said  shoulder  of 
mutton  afore  her  on  the  spit,  and  afterward  to  be  committed  to  prison, 
there  to  remain  until  the  ordinor  take  further  order  therein."  ^ 

They  were  hard  enough  on  criminals  in  the  town  of  Dover.  Thus, 
in  the  first  year  "  divse  nostrae  Elisabethae,"  Richard  Shooder  was  justly 
accused  of  being  a  common  cut-purse  and  condemned  as  follows  :  "  That 
he  shall  go  to  the  pillory  and  there  the  Bailiff's  officer  or  deputy  shall 
nail  one. of  his  ears  to  the  pillory  and  give  him  a  knife  in  his  hand, 
and  leave  to  cut  off  (his  ear)  or  else  stand  still  there — this  to  be  done 
in  the  open  face  of  the  market  with  a  paper  on  his  head."  The  punish- 
ment did  not  end  here,  however,  for  according  to  the  Dover  custumal, 
any  one  found  earless  in  the  town  of  Dover  was  forthwith  condemned 
to  death.  The  carrying  out  of  the  sentence  meant  the  throwing  of  the 
condemned  "  over  Sharpness  Cliff."  What  made  the  whole  business 
unpleasant  for  all  parties  concerned  was  that  the  accuser  was  forced 
to  put  the  sentence  into  execution.  Except,  however,  for  this  point 
the  Dover  Custumal  is  one  of  the  least  interesting  of  the  ports. 

To  conclude  with  a  question  that  has  puzzled  graver  heads  than 
my  own.  In  a  letter  of  1751,  the  Primate  of  Ireland  writes  from 
Dublin  Castle  to  Lord  George  Sackville :  "  I  have  tasted  all  the  different 
wines  and  find  to  my  great  concern  that  there  is  nothing  but  the  claret 
that  can  be  made  to  answer  any  purpose.  Of  the  two  sorts  of  cham- 
pagne that  sealed  with  a  yellow  seal  might  go  off  at  balls,  if  there 
were  a  better  kind  for  select  meetings.  The  red  wax  is  too  bad  for 
even  an  election  dinner  at  Dover  .''"^  I  can  offer  no  explanation  of  the 
remark,  and  I  have  not  yet  met  any  one  who  could.  Why  the  Dover 
electors   should   have  been   noted  for    drinking   undrinkable    champagnes 

1  I  have  translated  into  modern  spelling  this      is  here  incredibly  wild  in  his  orthography. 
and  the  following  note.     Shallow's  clerk,  with  his  ^  Report    of    Hist.    Man.    Comm.,    Sackville 

"concluded,  condycended,  and  agreed  adjudged,"      Letters,  p.  401^. 


28o  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

I   do  not  know,   nor  has  any  other   historian   of   Dover   mentioned   the 

matter. 

I  have  already  treated  somewhat  fully  of  one  of  Dover's  corporate 
members— namely,  Folkestone— and  I  now  propose  to  touch  upon  the 
history  of  the  other  corporate  member,  Faversham.  Mention  of  Dover's 
non- corporate  members  I  shall  have  to  defer  until  a  later  chapter. 
Faversham  itself  lies  well  away  to  the  north  of  Kent— nearly  thirty 
miles  to  the  north-west  of  Dover.  Roman  remains  have  been  found 
in  the  place,  a  cemetery,  coins  of  Vespasian,  a  putative  camp.  The 
two  Roman  saints  Crispin  and  Crispinus  are  said  to  have  here  learnt 
their  trade  of  cobbler.  In  Saxon  times,  too,  Athelstan  is  said  to  have 
held  a  Parliament  or  Witenagemot  at  Faversham.  Under  the  Conqueror  it 
fell  to  the  lot  of  the  De  Ypres  family.  Stephen,  however,  took  it  of  the 
De  Ypres  who  built  the  Ypres  tower  of  Rye,  and  gave  him  in  exchange 
"Queen  Matilda's  hereditary  estate  called  Lillichir."  Stephen  himself 
appears  to  have  conceived  a  great  liking  for  the  place,  for  in  1147  he 
began  the  building  of  the  great  Cluniac  (afterwards  Benedictine)  Abbey, 
which  conferred  upon  Faversham  its  principal  cause  of  fame.  Stephen 
himself  with  his  wife  and  daughter  were  buried  within  the  abbey. 

The  chief  features  of  the  history  of  the  town  for  some  centuries  after 
were  the  triangular  squabbles  which  ensued  between  the  Benedictine 
abbots,  the  College  of  St  Augustine's,  Canterbury,  and  the  townsmen 
themselves.  St  Augustine's,  as  it  happened,  owned  the  church  and  tithes 
of  Faversham  ;  the  townsmen,  as  Portsmen,  would  suffer  no  encroachments 
from  either  party  of  religious,  and  both  parties  of  religious  were  con- 
tinually attempting  encroachments.  Thus  under  Edward  I.  the  barons 
of  Faversham  were  fined  for  assaulting  the  St  Augustine  monks,  whilst 
a  little  later  the  Abbot  of  Faversham  was  imprisoned  in  Dover  Castle  for 
having  trespassed  on  the  liberties  of  the  five  Ports.  The  local  records 
assert  that  the  archbishop,  attempting  to  help  the  abbot,  was  only  saved 
from  sharing  his  fate  by  the  intercessions  of  his  suffragan  of  Rochester. 


PORT  OF  DOVER  AND  ITS  MEMBER,  FAVERSHAM.  281 

Faversham  seems  to  have  been  a  member  of  the  Ports'  confederation  from 
the  earliest  times.  Its  earliest  charter,  that  of  36th  Henry  III.,  confirms  * 
the  privileges  which  the  town  had  enjoyed  in  the  time  of  the  Confessor. 
It  did  not  indeed  enjoy  its  corporate  rights  unchallenged,  the  monks  of 
St  Augustine's  strongly  resenting  the  style  and  title  of  "  Mayor  of 
Faversham."  The  matter  was  finally  settled  by  the  townsmen  allowing 
the  monastic  bailiff"  to  sit  in  court  side  by  side  with  him  of  the  town. 
This  continued  in  force  until  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  when  the  St 
Augustine's  bailiff  disappeared.  Faversham,  owing  perhaps  to  the  fact 
that  its  abbey  was  the  usual  sleeping-place  of  the  kings  on  their  road 
to  Dover,  possesses  an  unusual — an  almost  extraordinary  number  of 
royal  grants — having  indeed  no  less  than  seventeen  charters  of  its  own, 
besides  several  general  to  the  Ports.  The  contributions  of  Faversham 
in  the  way  of  ships  were  usually  limited  to  one,  though  at  the  siege  of 
Calais  it  furnished  two  ships  with  fifty-three  mariners.  In  Armada  year 
it  found  one  ship  of  40  tons.  As  a  port,  Faversham  seems  to  have  been 
more  fortunate  than  most  of  its  sisters.  Leland  says  of  it  :  "  There 
cometh  up  a  creeke  to  this  town,  that  beareth  vessels  of  20  tun,  and,  a 
mile  farther  north-east  is  a  great  key  to  discharge  big  vessels."  Says 
Jacob,  who  wrote  in  1774  :  "  Upon  comparing  the  state  of  it  at  that  time 
with  the  present  it  is  evident  that  it  is  now  much  improved,  for  vessels  of 
80  tons  and  upwards  (of  which  size  are  our  present  corn-hoys)  can  come 
up  to  the  keys  at  common  tides,  and  even  those  that  do  not  draw  above 
8  feet  of  water,  at  common  spring-tides."  ^ 

This  improvement  of  the  harbour  was  not  effected  without  a  certain 
amount  of  diligence  on  the  part  of  the  Faversham  corporation.  Thus 
we  read  that  "according  to  ancient  usage  and  custom,  every  owner  of 
a  vessel  of  10  tons  and  upwards  found  a  man  with  an  iron  rake  and 
shovel  to  work  therein  for  six  days  in  a  year,  and  the  owners  of 
smaller  vessels  found   a  man  with   the   same   implements,   to  work  three 

1  Jacob's  Hist,  of  Faversham,  p.  7. 


282  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

days  under  the  direction  of  the  overseers."  In  1558  a  shiice  was 
erected,  and  so  on  and  so  on. 

In  1556  there  occurred  the  famous  murder  of  Arden  of  Faversham — 
a  murder  which  was  the  subject  of  the  play  more  or  less  falsely  ascribed 
to  Shakespeare. 

In  1572,  and  again  in  1581,  "diva  nostra"  visited  Faversham,  and 
in  1688,  James  II.  paid  what  the  townsmen  called  an  "unwilling"  visit 
to  the  town — on  12th  December.  The  matter  is  thus  described  by 
Captain  Richard  Marsh. ^  The  Faversham  sailors  captured  "in  a  vessel 
lying  at  Shellness  to  take  in  ballast  .  .  .  three  persons  of  quality,  of 
which  they  knew  only  Sir  Edward  Hales,  from  which  three  persons  they 
took  301  guineas  and  brought  them  ashore  afterwards  beyond  Oure  at  a 
place  called  the  Stool  on  Wednesday,  December  12th,  about  ten  o'clock 
.  .  .  where  met  them  Sir  Thomas  Jenner's  coach  with  about  twenty 
gentlemen  of  the  town  on  horseback  and  brought  them  to  the  Queen's 
Arms  at  Faversham.  I,  standing  by  the  coach,  seeing  the  King  come 
out,  whom  I  knew  very  well,  was  astonished  and  exclaimed  : — 

"  '  Gentlemen,  you  have  taken  the  King  a  prisoner,'  which  wrought 
great  amazement  among  them  all.  Then  the  gentlemen  acknowledged 
him  as  their  sovereign.  Then  the  King  expressed  himself  in  this  manner 
to  one  of  the  clergy  : — 

"  '  I  see  the  rabble  is  up,  and  must  say  with  the  Psalmist,  that  God 
alone  can  still  the  rage  of  the  sea  and  the  madness  of  the  people,  for  I 
cannot  do  it,  therefore  I  am  forced  to  fly.' 

"  The  King  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Earl  of  Winchelsea  to  come  to  him ; 
at  which  my  lord  came  from  Canterbury  that  night,  which  much  gladded 
the  King,  that  he  had  now  one  with  him  that  knew  how  to  respect  the 
person  of  a  King  and  to  awe  the  rabble,  for  these  brutish  and  unmannerly 
sailors  had  carried  themselves  very  indecently  towards  him.  The  King 
desired  much  of  the  gentlemen  to  convey  him  away  at  night  in  the  custom- 

1  Narrative  of  the  Capture  of  the  Late  King,  by  Captain  Richard  Marsh,  1688. 


PORT  OF  DOVER  AND  ITS  MEMBER,  FAVERSHAM.         283 

house  boat,  and  pressed  it  upon  their  consciences  that  if  the  P  ....  of 
O  .  .  .  .  should  take  away  his  life,  his  blood  would  be  required  at  their 
hands.  .  .  .  The  gentlemen  would  by  no  means  admit  of  it,  saying  that 
they  must  be  accountable  to  the  P  .    .   .    .   of  O  .    .    .   ." 

Finally  the  king,  after  writing  to  the  Grand  Council  for  money,  was 
prevailed  upon  to  return  to  Whitehall,  and  with  that  Faversham  passes 
out  of  the  ken  of  history. 


284 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

DOVER,   ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD,   AND    FAVERSHAM. 

The  modern  town  of  Dover  is,  in  its  general  aspect,  strikingly  like 
Hastings.  It  lies  in  hollows  that  run  down  to  the  sea,  crowds  year  by 
year  farther  back  towards  the  hills  that  hem  it  in.  It  is  quite  as 
ugly  as  Hastings — uglier  perhaps ;  but  inasmuch  as  it  is  a  town  with  a 
purpose,  is  not  a  mere  pleasuring  place,  one  resents  its  ugliness  less.  It 
is  massive,  heavy,  rather  stolid,  does  not  trouble  to  make  itself  very 
spick  and  span.  It  has,  it  is  true,  a  rather  formal  esplanade  ;  but  the 
houses  along  it  are  not  so  impossibly  grotesque  as  those  one  may  find 
in  other  places  of  the  sort. 

There  are  at  the  east  end  of  the  town  a  few  squares  and  streets  that 
have  the  pleasantly  lazy,  respectable  air  that  obtained  in  the  early  nine- 
teenth century,  but  the  rest  of  the  place  is  genially  untidy.  Thus  in 
Snargate  Street  one  may  see  the  battered  cliffs  tower  riaht  over  and 
down  upon  the  house -roofs,  rather  grim,  rather  begrimed.  Nature,  in 
fact,  forces  itself  into  notice,  is  not  content  to  refrain  from  shocking  the 
delicate  susceptibilities  of  town  dwellers. 

The  streets  along  the  quays,  too,  are  moderately  suggestive,  though 
the  harbour  itself  is  too  obviously— perhaps  too  necessarily— artificial  to 
be  altogether  satisfactory.  Nevertheless,  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year, 
in  certain  lights,  when  mists  abound,  the  harbour  has  its  charms.  In 
the  owl-light,  the  criss-cross  of  spars,  of  ropes,  the  crinkled-glass  windows 


DOVER,  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD,  AND  FAVERSHAM.  285 

of  marine  stores,  of  rope-sellers'  shops,  of  obscure  eating-houses,  gleam 
with  the  laced  lights  and  shadows  of  a  harbour  evening.  Then  the  place 
has  a  Dickensian  savour,  not  vastly  inspiring,  yet  not  lacking  in  human 
interest.  Similarly  there  is  a  small  triangular  tract  of  obscure  grimy 
streets  to  the  west  of  the  harbour,  the  north  of  the  Admiralty  Pier.  Here 
one  finds  Marryat's  long  -  shoresmen's  houses,  their  suspicious  shops, 
their  squalor.  A  number  of  houses  are  empty,  broken  -  windowed, 
boarded  up.  In  the  doorways  of  these  the  local  bylaws  seem  to  sanction 
the  establishment  of  what  are  called  creches.  Perambulators  stand 
against  the  eternally  closed  doors ;  infantile  wails  issue  from  obscure 
passages.  The  narrow  streets  wind  inscrutably  about,  run  against  brick 
fortifications.  One  sees  signs  of  local  interest  hang  modestly  in  windows, 
under  doorways — "  Fine  Rockbait,"  or,  "  Canteens  and  Sergeants'  Messes 
catered  for." 

This  is  a  mere  backwater  of  the  west.  The  ostensible  purpose  of 
the  part  of  the  town  is  the  exhibition  of  the  Admiralty  Pier,  which  runs 
out,  very  white,  very  rigid,  very  formal,  towards  the  opposing  coast. 
Incidentally  it  serves  as  a  place  of  departure  for  the  mail-steamers,  as 
a  place  for  the  housing  of  two  81 -ton  guns,  as  a  putative  defence,  as  a 
part  of  an  incomplete,  vast  harbour  of  refuge.  Actually,  its  most  ap- 
parent purpose  is  the  affording  of  a  fine  promenade  for  such  of  the  Queen's 
lieges  as  happen  to  be  in  the  town  of  Dover.  One  enjoys  from  its  end 
a  magnificent  view  of  the  sea,  of  the  threatening  castle,  of  the  South 
Foreland,  of  Shakespeare's  Cliff.  But  the  pier  is  only  a  fine-weather 
promenade.  On  stormy  days  it  is  unapproachable.  They  say  that 
blocks  of  concrete  weighing  many  tons  have  been  thrown  by  the  force 
of  the  waves  completely  over  the  pier  into  the  harbour.  But,  as  a  rule, 
the  pier  is  an  agreeable  lounge.  One  may  profitably  and  lazily  stroll 
there,  meditating  upon  things  in  general,  and  patriotically  elated  at  the 
thought  of  what  tremendously  loud  bangs  the  81 -ton  guns  would  make 
if  by  any  possibility  they  ever  came  to  be  fired  off 


286  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

The  castle  one  reaches  inevitably  by  taking  any  of  the  western- 
running  streets.  It  is  approached  either  by  excessively  steep  paths  or  by 
a  winding  and  more  merciful  carriage-road.  Its  general  plan  is,  however, 
best  seen  from  one  or  other  of  the  neighbouring  heights.  It  is  finely 
"  upstanding,"  the  beau  iddal  of  a  medieval  hold.  Modern  exigencies  have 
converted  the  present  keep  into  a  rather  grotesque  caricature.  When  I 
was  a  boy  there  used  to  be  in  a  Kensington  by-street  a  pastry-cook  who 
exhibited  to  an  awestruck  world  a  magnificent  wedding-cake  crowned 
with  just  such  a  castle.  The  wedding-cake  castle  was  fabricated  out  of 
glazed  sugar,  and  to-day  when  I  look  at  the  castle  from,  say,  the  Priory 
Hill,  I  find  it  impossible  to  believe  that  the  pastry-cook's  was  not  the 
real  thing,  the  castle  only  a  less  fly-blown  imitation.  The  curtain  with 
its  towers  remains  fine  :  there  was  less  temptation  to  turn  it  into  a  sort 
of  sight-seer's  ideal.  The  modern  fortifications,  one  is  told,  are  entirely 
subterranean,  are  of  immense  strength,  rival  those  of  Gibraltar.  What 
appears  of  defences  and  defenders  are,  a  quantity  of  barrack  buildings, 
a  quantity  of  soldiers,  and  an  immense— oh,  an  immense  number  of 
placards  that  tell  one  where  one  may  not  go.  There  are,  too,  one  or 
two  guns,  leviathanly  antediluvian  in  appearance.  Round  these,  if  one  is 
in  luck,  one  sometimes  sees  companies  of  soldiers  in  various  states  of 
deshabille.  They  manipulate  the  heavy  grey  things  with  every  appear- 
ance of  disrespect— depress  them,  go  through  all  the  motions  of  actually 
firing  them  off,  but  nothing  ever  happens.  One  grows  excited ;  thinks, 
"  Now  the  bang  is  really  coming "  ;  but  it  does  not.  The  men  put  on 
their  coats,  do  up  their  belts,  talk  a  little,  saunter  away,  leaving  the  lonely 
gun  pointing  desolately  over  the  blank  sea. 

In  one  way  the  castle  offers  a  mild  excitement.  It  is  everywhere 
dotted  with  sentries,  sentries  armed  with  real  guns  and  with  invariably 
suspicious  eyes.  One,  if  one  is  frivolous,  is  filled  with  vague  ideas  of 
possible  arrest  as  a  foreign  spy;  but  the  sentries  never  do  point  their 
bayonets  against  one's  chest,  never  convey  one  before  a  ferocious  court- 


DOVER,  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD,  AND  FAVERSHAM.  287 

martial.  The  nearest  approach  to  anything  of  the  sort  takes  place  on 
the  drill-ground  near  the  keep.  Here  one  arrives  a  little  out  of  breath, 
and,  as  like  as  not,  pauses  to  look  at  the  troops  performing  intermin- 
able evolutions.  If  one  does  so,  one  is  approached  by  a  very  polite 
military  person,  who  informs  that  some  one  has  given  orders  that  no 
one  is  to  stand  still  and  look.  It  disturbs  the  men.  One  passes  on, 
wondering  guilelessly  what  happens  in  times  of  war  to  men  so  easily 
disturbed. 

The  interior  of  the  Keep  is  extremely  interesting  from  an  architectural 
point  of  view.  Restorations  apart,  it  is  a  fine  piece  of  Norman  work,  a 
good  deal  hacked  about  by  succeeding  generations  of  architects.  It 
contains,  besides,  a  number  of  specimens  of  early  arms  and  armour. 
They  show  one  breastplates  supposed  to  have  been  worn  by  Cromwell's 
Ironsides.  If  those  heroes  really  did  wear  them,  their  chests  must  have 
been  small  in  dimensions.  They  show  one,  too,  the  well  that  Harold 
swore  to  deliver  to  the  Conqueror.  It  is  of  considerable  depth.  Into 
its  gloomy  mouth  one  drops — or  has  dropped  for  one — stones.  One 
listens  for  an  unbearable  number  of  heart-beats,  and  hears  at  last  thunderous 
reverberations  ascending  to  the  upper  air.  Or  one  is  allowed  to  drop 
pieces  of  lighted  paper  into  it.  They  sail,  wavering,  down  into  the 
darkness,  lighting  up  slimy  walls,  sailing  down  and  dying  out  long  before 
they  have  reached  the  bottom.  The  sight  of  these  depths  beyond  un- 
known depths  used,  I  remember,  vividly  to  impress  me  when  a  boy — 
perhaps  the  practice  is  nowadays  forbidden. 

A  little  way  to  the  south  of  the  keep  stands  the  church  of  Saint 
Mary  in  the  castle  and  the  Pharos.  Of  Roman  work  in  the  latter  very 
little  is  now  discoverable.  It  was  a  good  deal  pulled  to  pieces  in  the 
time  of  the  Normans,  and  in  1259  was  cased  in  flint  by  Constable  Gray. 
The  unfortunate  church  is  the  most  astounding  specimen  of  the  bad 
taste  of  restorers  that  even  the  Liberties  of  the  Five  Ports  can  show. 
What   purpose   the   irreverent   daubing   of  the   interior   can    have    been 


288  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

intended  to  serve  it  passes  the  powers  of  the  human  mind  to  discover. 
It  is  comforting  to  think  that,  low  as  we  stand  to-day,  wicked  as  we 
are,  we  have  chmbed  some  way  out  of  the  slough  of  the  'Sixties  that 
saw  this  sacrilege  effected.  One  imagines  the  bones  of  the  excellent 
Lucius  turning  in  their  shrine  at  Coire  when  he  heard  what  was  a-gate 
in  the  church  that  he  did  —  or  did  not  —  build.  By  more  than  half 
closing  one's  eyes  one  can  get  some  sort  of  notion  of  what  the  church 
may  once  have  looked  like.  It  is  rather  long,  rather  narrow,  rather 
dark,  a  little  grim.  It  contains  a  doorway  that  the  restorer.  Sir  Gilbert 
Scott,  declared  to  be  Roman  -  British,  a  Norman  lychnoscope,  some 
rather  fine  Romanesque  work,  and  a  certain  amount  of  later  work  of 
different  periods.  At  the  time  when  Scott  took  it  in  hand,  it  was  a 
roofless  ruin  —  from  what  one  can  learn  of  woodcuts,  a  remarkably  fine 
one. 

Several  of  the  numerous  towers  are  worth  visiting,  notably  that 
called  "  Fienes',"  after  the  first  constable  of  that  name.  It  was  Norman 
in  origin,  but,  like  everything  else  in  the  castle,  has  undergone  a  vast 
amount  of  pulling  about.  It  still  contains  some  fine  rooms,  mostly 
Tudor  in  character.  It  used  to  contain  a  duplicate  of  the  original 
Magna  Charta,  which  had  been  conveyed  thither  by  Hubert  de  Burgh, 
the  king's  principal  upholder  at  Runnymede.  This  document  was  stolen 
— conveyed,  the  wise  call  it — by  a  member  of  the  Dering  family  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  Charles  I.  being  king.  Perhaps  if  that  monarch, 
when  a  dozen  years  later  he  brought  his  flying  queen  to  the  castle, 
could  have  had  a  sight  of  the  Great  Charter,  he  might  have  been  moved 
to  meditations  that  would  have  saved  his  handsome  head  from  the  block. 
As  it  was,  the  charter  became  part  of  the  Dering  collection  of  manu- 
scripts, and  the  king's  head  was  fated  to  for  ever  figure  in  poor  Mr 
Dick's. 

On  a  bank  above  one  of  the  principal  roads  in  the  castle  stands 
the    beautiful    piece  of  brass  ordnance  called   Queen    Elizabeth's   Pocket 


DOVER,  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD,  AND  FAVERSHAM.  289 

Pistol.^  This  is  said,  on  the  one  hand,  to  have  been  presented  to  "  diva 
nostra"  by  the  Netherlanders,  on  the  other  by  the  Emperor  Charles  V. 
to  Henry  VIII.  It  is  ornamented  with  very  fine  designs  of  a  decorative 
allegorical  character,  and  bears  the  legend — 

"  Breeck  scuret  al  muer  ende  wal  bin  ic  geheten, 
Doer  berch  en  dal  boert  minen  bal  van  mi  gesmetem." 

This  has  been  excellently  translated  by  a  gentleman   unacquainted  with 

Low  Dutch  : — 

"  Load  me  well  and  keep  me  clean, 
I'll  carry  my  ball  to  Calais  Green." 

But  it  really  means  something  like,  "  I  am  bidden  break  all  earthworks 
and  walls.     A  ball  hurled  by  me  bores  through  hill  and  dale." 

As  is  only  natural,  the  views  from  such  points  of  the  castle  as 
command  views  are  surpassingly  grand.  Seen  from  the  height  the  smoky 
town  and  the  toy-like  harbour  gain  an  added  significance,  the  distant 
opposing  coast  a  new  meaning.  One  sees  the  idle  sea  playing  gently 
with  the  concave,  listless  shore ;  realises  what  that  writer  had  in  mind 
when  he  made  Austria  say  to  Arthur  : — 

"  Together  with  that  pale,  that  white-faced  shore. 
Whose  foot  spurns  back  the  Ocean's  roaring  tides 
And  coops  from  other  lands  her  islanders. 
Even  till  that  England,  hedged  in  with  the  main, 
That  water-walled  bulwark,  still  secure 
And  confident  from  foreign  purposes. 
Even  till  that  utmost  corner  of  the  West 
Salute  thee  for  her  king.  .  .  ." 

One  reaches  more  modern  fortifications  by  ascending  the  curious 
spiral  staircase  that  leads  from   Snargate   Street  through  the  chalk  up- 

^  Dumas  in  his  Memoirs  gives  an  amusing  la  Reine  Anne."  He  adds  historical  details 
account  of  Dover,  which  he  says  is  noteworthy  which  are  as  magnificent  pieces  of  imagining  as 
only  for  abominable  coffee  and  the  culverin  "de      one  could  wish. 


290  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

wards  to  the  barracks  and   the  Drop  Redoubt.     In   the  barracks,  as  at 

Shorncliffe,   one  sees  the  soldier  at  home.      He   is  very  much  the  same 

in   both   places,    not   vastly   more   majestic,    though   placed   at   a   higher 

altitude,   at   Dover.     Between   the   barracks   and   the  edge  of  the  cliff  is 

the  remains  of  the  church  that  one  calls  with  rather  insufficient  evidence 

that  of  the  Knights  Templars,   in  which  one  may,  if  one  be  too  lazy  to 

go  to  Ewell,  imagine  King  John  laying  his  crown  at  the  feet  of  Pandulph, 

saying — 

"Thus  have  I  yielded  up  into  your  hands 

The  circle  of  my  glory." 

Shakespeare,  however,  with  a  fine  scorn  for  the  archaeological,  makes  this 
historic  scene  take  place  at  Northampton. 

The  Drop  Redoubt  stands  upon  an  eminence  that  in  old  maps  is 
styled  "The  Devil's  Drop."  Probably,  therefore,  some  legend  connects 
the  place  with  the  foul  Fiend.  It  doubtless  got  this  bad  name  from  its 
proximity  to  the  Bredenstone  Pharos,  which  was  only  removed  to  make 
way  for  the  Redoubt.  The  Bredenstone  itself  is  a  sufficiently  mysterious 
object.  Over  it  the  Lord  Wardens  are  traditionally  sworn  in,  but  what 
is  the  nature  of  the  connection  between  the  Wardenship  and  the  stone 
one  does  not  know.  According  to  Mr  Knocker's  account  of  the  swear- 
ing in  of  Lord  Palmerston  in  1861,  the  Court  of  Shepway  that  year 
was  held  in  the  very  entrance  of  the  Redoubt.  The  few  remaining 
fragments  of  the  Bredenstone  had  lately  been  exhumed,  and  over  them 
his  Lordship  took  the  serement  in  the  mode  that  follows. 

Says  the  Speaker  of  the  Court : — 

"  '  Sir,  ye  shall  keep  inviolate  and  maintain  all  the  franchises,  liberties, 
customs,  and  usages  of  the  Five  Ports,  in  all  that  ye  may  do,  by  the 
allegiance  that  ye  owe  unto  our  Lady  the  Queen,  and  by  your  knight- 
hood." 

"And  his  Lordship,  holding  up  his  hand,  breast  high  and  more, 
affirmed  thus  :   '  Yes,   if  God  will,   I  shall  to  my  power.' 


DOVER,  ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD,   AND  FAVERSHAM.  291 

"  Being  a  knight  and  of  the  Queen's  Council,  he  was  not  obliged 
to  swear  upon  a  book  nor  to  repeat  the  words." 

In  1 89 1,  the  Marquis  of  Dufferin  was  sworn  in,  also  upon  the  Breden- 
stone,  but  the  present  Lord  Warden  preferred  not  to  climb  the  Western 
Heights,  and  was  installed  in  the  playground  of  Dover  College.  This 
was  Lord  Salisbury,  whose  installation  took  place  in   1894. 

The  other  buildings  of  archaeological  interest  in  Dover  lie  mostly 
to  the  north  of  the  Market  Square.  The  street  which  afterwards  be- 
comes the  London  Road  starts  its  career  as  Cannon  Street.  As  such 
it  contains  the  once  venerable  Church  of  St  Mary.  Like  everything  else, 
this  building  has  been  restored  out  of  all  recognition.  Part  of  the 
Norman  chancel  is  still  moderately  fine,  but  the  rest  is  sordid  to  a  de- 
gree. The  Norman  tower  must  once  have  been  imposing.  Its  lower 
parts  were  repaired  by  Canon  Puckle,  who  set  about  the  work  in  a  spirit 
of  some  reverence,  numbering  the  stones  and  setting  them  back  again  in 
due  order,  contriving  to  retain  some  of  the  look  of  the  real  thing.  The 
upper  part,  which  is  a  product  of  the  year  1898,  still  looks  beautifully 
new  ;  looks  like  a  part  of  a  cheap  chapel  of  ease  in  a  London  suburb.^ 


'  Ireland  makes  the  following  curious  remarks  of  the  magisterial  office  on  the  other  hand,  we 

about  the  internal  arrangement  of  the  church  :—  cannot  help  remarking  that  such  an  appropria- 

"  However  painful  the  task,  we  cannot  here  tion  of  seats  is  as  unbecoming  as  the  abominable 

omit  to  remark  the  continuation  of  a  most  glaring  custom  of  holding  elections  in  churches,  whereby 

impropriety  which  every  friend  of  decency  and  the  house  of  prayer,  if  not  converted  into  a  den  of 

decorum  must  desire  to  see  removed  from  a  place  thieves,  is  absolutely  turned  into  a  bear  garden. 

of  divine  worship.     Every  one  reading  the  his-  "When  Charles  II.  visited  Dover,  on  repairing 

tory  of  Dover  will  feel  astonished  to  find  after  to  church,  he  was  conducted  with  great  pomp  to 

reading  the  plain  hint  which  the   Corporation  this  place   of  hearing,  when  his  majesty,  in   a 

received   from    Royalty  itself,   that  a   range   of  manner  indicating   that   true   humility  dignifies 

highly  ornamented  and  distinguished   seats  oc-  instead  of  debases  the  highest  station,  declined 

cupy  the   recess   behind   the   communion-table,  the   use   of  a  seat,  placed,   as  he  emphatically 

close  to  which  (if  not  upon  it)  the  mace  borne  observed, 

^  ^  '  'above 

before  the  chief  magistrate  is  placed  durmg  his  ^,^^  ^^^.^^^^  ^^  ^^^^^„  ,  „ 

attendance  at  divine  worship.     With  every  dis- 
like to  superstition  and  bigotry  on  the  one  hand,  — Hist,  of  Kent,  vol.  ii.  p.  91. 
and  entertaining  the  highest  respect  for  the  dignity 


292  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

After  Cannon  Street  has  become  Biggin  Street  and  is  thinking  of 
changing  into  High  Street,  one  happens  upon  Hubert  de  Burgh's  Maison 
Dieu.  In  the  noble  proportions  of  the  hall  one  recognises  the  genius 
of  the  medieval  builders.  This  too  was  rather  badly  restored  in  the 
'Sixties— but  not  quite  so  badly  as  most  of  the  buildings  in  Dover.  It 
is  said  to  have  been  transmogrified  under  the  auspices  of  the  present 
President  of  the  Royal  Academy,  but  I  should  think  that  it  was  Mr 
Ambrose  Poynter,  the  President's  father,  who  did  the  work.  Such  as  it 
is,  the  interior  of  the  hall  vaguely  suggests  similarly  restored  buildings 
in  Germany.  It  gains  a  certain  air  of  richness  from  the  scutcheons  of 
successive  Lord  Wardens  and  from  the  by  no  means  contemptible 
stained  glass  in  some  of  the  windows.  It  contains,  too,  portraits  of 
various  Lords  Warden  and  of  other  officers  of  the  Ports,  and  a  number 
of  assorted  specimens  of  armour  and  arms  that  came  from  the  Tower 
of  London. 

The  stained  glass,  as  I  have  said,  is  by  no  means  so  bad  as  one 
might  have  expected.  The  windows  by  Sir  Edward  Poynter  have  at 
least  been  designed  by  an  artist,  and  the  others  are  not  much  worse  than 
they  might  have  been.  The  subjects  represented  are  designed  to  illustrate 
the  history  of  the  town.     Thus  one  has — ■ 

I.   The  relief  of  the  castle  by  Stephen  de  Pencestre. 
II.   The  granting  of  the  Maison  Dieu  Charter  to  Hubert  de  Burgh 
by  Henry  III. 

III.  Edward  III.  passing  through  Dover. 

IV.  The  landing  of  the  Emperor  Sigismund. 

V.   The  embarkation  of  Henry  VIII.  for  the  Field  of  the  Cloth  of 
Gold. 
VI.   The  landing  of  Charles  II. 

Not  far  from  the  Maison  Dieu,  in  a  westerly  direction,  lies  the  Dover 
Priory,    the    ancient    establishment    of   St    Martin's.       This    remained    in 


DOVER,  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD,   AND  FAVERSHAM.  293 

ruins  until  the  year  1868,  when  it  was  much  pulled  about.  It  now  forms 
the  home  of  Dover  College.  The  Refectory,  the  Stranger's  Hall,  and 
one  of  the  gateways  still  _  remain  in  various  stages  of  restoration. 
Churchill,  the  author  of  the  'Prophecy  of  Famine,'  the  scourger  of 
Hogarth,  and  the  joint  -  author  with  Wilkes  of  the  North  Briton,  was 
buried  here.  Before  his  pen  in  its  day  the  whole  world  trembled— the 
Duke  of  Grafton,  Lord  Bute,  all  the  king's  ministers,  all  the  Medmenham 
Abbey  Gang.  Even  into  the  present  century  the  lustre  of  his  name 
lasted.  His  tomb  was  one  of  the  last  things  that  Byron  saw  in  Eng- 
land, saw  before  he  went  to  find  his  death  in  Greece.  One  forgets 
Churchill  nowadays,  but  he  was  able  to  write  for  his  epitaph  in  St 
Martin's  churchyard — 

"  Life  to  the  last  enjoyed,  here  Churchill  lies." 

So  perhaps  his  lot  was  happier  than  most. 

For  the  rest,  there  is  a  rather  amusing  view  of  the  manners  of  the 
Dover  men  that  I  venture  to  lift  from  the  pages  of  the  excellent  Fussell  : 
"  The  markets,  in  addition  to  their  supply  of  provisions  from  the  neigh- 
bourhood, are  commonly  well  stocked  with  poultry,  game,  and  fish  and 
vegetables  from  Calais  and  Boulogne ;  and  it  is  extremely  amusing  to 
observe  the  effect  of  a  constant  intercourse  with  foreigners,  both  as  it 
relates  to  their  mode  of  dealing,  habits  of  behaviour,  and  language.  A 
fishwoman  at  Dover  is  quite  a  different  being  from  a  fishwoman  at 
Billingsgate ;  and  the  market-gardeners  at  Covent  Garden  are  almost  as 
unlike  those  who  are  engaged  in  the  like  occupation  on  the  verge  of 
this  coast  as  a  Parisian  belle  is  unlike  an  English  dairymaid.  Let  it 
not,  however,  be  inferred  that  any  loss  on  the  score  of  honesty,  of  morals, 
or  of  civility  is  likely  to  be  the  result  of  an  unrestrained  communication 
with  our  opposite  neighbours ;  but  let  us  endeavour  to  profit  by  their 
example,  whether  worthy  of  imitation  or  deserving  to  be  discouraged  or 
avoided."      This  weird  international  combination   is  no   longer  markedly 


1 


294 


THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 


visible    in    the    Dover   of  to-day.      The   spirit    of  the   age,    perhaps,   has 
proved    too  much  for  it,  and  the    Portsmen   have   grown   very   Uke  their 

neighbours. 

Roads  out  of  Dover  are  as  a  rule  hilly  and  not  vastly  interesting  at 
the  first  starting  out.  One  has  to  pass  through  too  many  suburbs. 
Thus,   to   fare  westward,    one   does   better    to    take    the    beach-path    near 


St  Margaret's  Bay. 


the  South-Eastern  Railway  station  and  to  climb  the  zigzag  path  up  the 
shoulder  of  Shakespeare's  Cliff,  though  for  bicjclists  this  is  not  very 
negotiable.  One  arrives,  rather  out  of  breath,  at  the  Townsend  Coast- 
guard Station  on  the  heights  above.  The  view  from  Shakespeare's  Cliff 
is  emotionally  grand,  but  one  is  prevented  from  describing  it,  is  forced 
to  quote.      Says  Edgar  : — 


DOVER,   ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD,   AND  FAVERSHAM.  295 

"  Come  on,  Sir ;  here's  the  place  :  stand  still,  oh,  fearful 
And  dizzy  'tis  to  cast  the  eye  so  low  : 
The  crows  and  choughs  that  wing  the  midway  air 
Show  scarce  so  gross  as  beetles  :  half  way  down 
Hangs  one  that  gathers  samphire,  dreadful  trade  : 
Methinks  he  seems  no  bigger  than  his  head. 
The  fishermen  that  walk  upon  the  beach 
Appear  like  mice ;  and  yon  tall  anchoring  bark 
Diminished  to  her  cock,  her  cock  a  buoy 
Almost  too  small  for  sight.     The  murm'ring  surge 
That  on  the  unnumbered  idle  pebbles  chafes 
Can  not  be  heard  so  high.     I'll  look  no  more 
Lest  my  brain  turn  and  the  deficient  sight 
Topple  down  headlong." 

Eighteenth-century  commentators  have  objected  that  this  passage  is 
strained  ;  but  then  everything  not  emasculated  shocked  an  eighteenth- 
century  commentator.  They  did  not  even  take  the  trouble  to  observe 
that  Edgar  was  describing  to  his  blind  father,  not  what  he  saw  but  what 
he  pretended  to  see.     He  was  exaggerating,  in  fact.^ 

Natural  historians,  too,  have  objected  that  the  chough  is  a  Cornish 
fowl  and  does  not  flourish  in  the  vicinity  of  Dover,  that  the  samphire 
does  not  grow  on  chalk  cliffs.  Yet  I  have  seen  choughs  not  six  miles 
away  from  the  cliff  itself,  and  the  samphire  certainly  does  grow  there 
and  on  the  face  of  most  of  the  cliffs  along  the  coast.  Is  there  not 
the  hackneyed  story  of  the  sailors  shipwrecked  at  the  foot  of  Beachy 
Head  —  sailors  who  were  brought  out  of  utter  despair  by  finding  that 
the  roots  to  which  they  were  clinging  were  those  of  this  plant,  which 
does  not  grow  below  high  -  water  mark  ?  I  do  not  think  that  the 
dreadful  trade  is  still  pursued  at  Dover,  but  Fussell  says  :  "  it  still 
employs   some    of  the    poorer    people,    and    is    exercised    now    (18 18)    in 

'  Pepys,  on  the  other  hand,  seems  inclined  to  wich]  made  a  pretty  good  measure  of  with  two 

imply  that  the  cliff  is  not  so  very  high  after  all  sticks  and  found  it  to  be   not  thirty-five  yards 

—not  even  so  lofty  as  the  spire  of  old  St  Paul's.  high— and   St   Paul's   is   reckoned  to  be   about 

"...  But  we  riding  under  it,  my  Lord  [Sand-  ninety."— Diary,  29th  May  1660. 


296  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

the  same  manner  as  in  the  days  of  Shakespeare,  by  descending  on  a 
stick  fastened  to  a  rope  which  is  secured  above  by  an  iron  crowbar  or 
a  stake  driven  into  the  ground  at  the  top  of  the  cliff."  Thus,  if  one 
cares  about  such  things,  one  may  be  gratified  by  the  thought  that  even  the 
mendacity  of  Shakespeare's  characters  is  founded  on  fact. 

The  edge  of  the  cHff  itself  is  not  the  stablest  of  ground.  One 
runs  a  slight  risk  of  ensuing  the  fate  that  poor  Gloster  vainly  courted. 
The  chalk  is  given  to  crumbling  away  beneath  one.  Frequent  falls 
of  the  chalk  seem  to  have  considerably  modified  the  form  of  the  cliff 
at  this  point.  At  one  time  the  Folkestone  road  ran  at  the  base  of  the 
cliff,  but  this  was  blocked  up  by  one  of  the  falls  in  the  last  century. 
Fussell  and  other  highly  veracious  chroniclers  delight  to  dilate  upon 
the  marvellous  fate  of  a  sow  that  was  buried  by  one  of  these  falls, 
which  took  place  behind  Snargate  Street  in  the  year  1814  :  "A  large 
portion  of  it  overwhelmed  one  of  the  cottages  at  its  foot,  but  happily 
without  personal  injury  to  the  inhabitants.  A  pigsty  which  was  buried 
beneath  the  fallen  rock  was  discovered  after  several  months  with  a  sow 
in  it,  which,  although  destitute  of  any  other  food  besides  the  litter  on 
which  she  lay,  was  dug  out  alive,  but  in  a  singularly  emaciated  state 
and  entirely  devoid  of  bristles." 

The  Folkestone  road  pursues  its  way  at  some  distance  from  the 
cliff  face.  It  is  in  general  a  rather  dreary  highway,  though  the  upland  air 
is  bracing  and  the  view  occasionally  fine.  At  one  point  of  its  course 
one  may  see  the  stone  which  commemorates  the  murder  of  "sweet 
Jemima  and  lovely  Caroline."  They  were  done  to  death  by  a  member 
of  the  German  Legion,  a  fact  that  I  have  already  recorded.  The 
German's  name  is  given  as  Dedea  Redanes,  a  name  rather  un-German 
in  sound  and  shape. 

One  may  return  to  Dover  by  striking  north  until  one  meets  one 
of  the  transverse  country  roads.  If  one  do  this,  one  will  come  upon  little 
villages  that  are  just  little  villages    and    nothing  more.     They  are   very 


DOVER,  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD,  AND  FAVERSHAM.  297 

quiet,  very  isolated,  very  charming  to  those  who  love  them,  but  have 
nothing  but  their  names  to  distinguish  them  from  all  the  other  little 
villages  that  one  never  hears  of,  will  never  hear  of  They  have  names 
like  Hougham  and  Alkham  and  Hawkinge  and  Capel-le-Fearne.  Near 
the  village  of  Poulton,  which  lies  between  these  places  and  the  London 
road,  one  may  see  the  ruins  of  St  Radigund's  Abbey.  It  was  a  wealthy 
twelfth-century  foundation  of  White  Canons.  It  was,  of  course,  laid  waste 
at  the  Reformation ;  but  Leland  reports  of  it  that  "  the  monasterys  at 
thys  tyme  netely  mayntayned,  but  yt  appereth  that  yn  tyme  past  the 
bildinges  have  bene  more  ample  than  now  they  be.  There  ys  on  the 
hille  fayre  wood  but  fresch  water  taketh  sum  tyme." 

The  village  of  River,  which  is  between  Poulton  and  the  London 
road,  is  rendered  pretty  and  leafy  by  the  Dour,  which  runs  through  it. 

One  may  go  eastward  out  of  Dover  either  by  taking  the  Deal  road 
or  by  again  having  recourse  to  the  cliff-walks.  These  one  reaches  by  a 
tunnel  which  climbs  gently  up  through  the  chalk  and  lets  one  out  near 
the  ugly  convict  prison.  The  walk  along  the  heights  is  very  similar 
in  character  to  that  along  the  brow  of  Shakespeare's  Cliff.  One  is  up 
and  away  in  the  air,  and  the  rest  of  the  world  seems  to  matter  very  little. 
One  passes  first  the  long  wall  of  the  aforesaid  convict  prison  ;  then  the 
Look-out,  a  cluster  of  coastguard  cottages  dignified  by  a  fine  flagstaff; 
then  the  two  South  Foreland  lighthouses.  One  is  on  the  South  Fore- 
land itself.  Somewhat  farther  along  one  comes  to  St  Margaret's  Bay, 
a  sort  of  small  amphitheatre  decked  out  with  stucco  houses  and  the 
like.  At  the  western  end  is  the  telegraph  hut,  a  diminutive  building 
into  which  run  the  submarine  wires  from  Ostend  and  Calais.  It  seems 
to  be  charmingly  unprotected  —  a  caretaker  visits  it  twice  a-week  or 
so.  As  such  it  should  furnish  material  for  sensational  fiction.  One 
imagines  a  nefarious  adventurer  who  comes  a-creeping  in  the  night- 
time, breaks  into  the  defenceless  hut,  taps  the  wire,  and  discovers  all 
sorts   of  Government   secrets  —  instructions   to   the    British    Ambassador 


298  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

at  Paris  and  what  not.  But  perhaps  this  would  not  be  strictly- 
practicable. 

Behind  the  village  of  St  Margaret's  Bay  lies  that  of  St  Margaret's- 
at-Cliffe.  This  is  distinguished  by  a  very  noble  Norman  church.  A 
rough  road  from  here  will  take  one  to  Kingsdown,  a  pretty  and  secluded 
village  in  a  valley  running  down  to  the  sea.  The  downs  here  are  for  the 
most  part  rather  depressing,  very  undulating,  very  bare,  very  monotonous. 
The  soil,  however,  is  said  to  be  fertile.  Perhaps  in  consequence  they 
manure  the  fields  with  rags  and  town-refuse  of  one  kind  or  another. 
This,  of  course,  adds  to  the  fertility,  but  does  not  improve  the  contours 
of  the  bounding  hills.  To  the  west  of  St  Margaret's-at-Clifife  lies  the 
hamlet  of  Westcliffe,  where  for  some  generations  the  family  of  Gibbon 
were  lords  of  the  manor.  Slightly  north  of  Westcliffe  runs  the  main 
road  between  Deal  and  Dover.  From  where  it  dips  down  behind  the 
castle  one  has  a  fine  view  of  Dover  itself.  One  is  able  again  to  ap- 
preciate the  philosophy  of  the  place :  its  sinister  grandeur,  its  almost 
saurian  advance  as  it  swallows  up  the  green  valleys.  In  among  the 
houses  one  sees  at  times  the  poor  little  river  Dour,  a  pathetic  thread 
of  silver  that  seems  to  have  no  real  purpose  in  days  like  these.  One 
thinks  that  its  whole  short  course  ought  to  be  covered  up  and  itself 
made  to  run  through  culverts.  The  principal  part  of  its  stream  is 
supplied  by  a  nail  -  bourne,  and  when  this  chooses  to  run  the  Dour 
boasts  a  certain  head  of  water.  As  a  rule,  it  dribbles  dispiritedly 
from  Ewell  to  the  sea,  a  distance  of  a  few  miles.  Perhaps  it  felt 
happier,    ran    more    sparklingly,    in    Leland's    day,    when    there    was    a 

"  Great  spring  at  a  place   cawled (perhaps   Dreligore),   and  that  ones 

in  a  vi  or  vii  yeres  brasted  out  so  abundantly  that  a  great  part  of  the 
water  commeth  into  Dovar  stream,  but  elsyt  runneth  into  se  betwyxt 
Dovar  and  Folchestan,  but  nerer  to  Folchestan." 

The  London  road  becomes  moderately  countrified  by  the  time  it 
has    reached    Ewell.     Of  the  old   house    of  the   Templars   not  a  vestige 


DOVER,  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD,  AND  FAVERSHAM.  299 

remains.  Like  so  many  other  old  buildings  in  these  parts,  it  succumbed 
to  the  destructive  dilettanteism  of  the  eighteenth  century.  If  one  be  in  a 
hurry  to  go  anywhere,  one  follows  Watling  Street  as  far  as  one  will — 
as  far  as  Canterbury  perhaps.  But  it  is  better  not  to  be  in  a  hurry — to 
go  nowhere,  to  turn  off  from  the  rather  arid  road.  One  loses  oneself 
quite  inevitably  ;  but  unless  one  is  of  a  confused  turn  of  mind,  the  losing 
oneself  is  no  very  serious  matter.  One  wanders  nonchalantly  along 
devious  narrow  roads,  along  footpaths,  across  broad  corn-fields,  through 
sheaves  and  thickets.  One  comes  upon  little  villages  that  are  almost 
invariably  gently  picturesque ;  quite  unexciting,  but  mellow ;  endowed 
with  what  one  calls  "  atmosphere."  Then,  too,  there  is  the  detritus 
of  historic  times,  scattered  all  among  the  little  hollows,  everywhere. 
At  Coldred,  to  the  east  of  the  London  road,  there  is  a  very  perfect 
small  Roman  camp ;  there  are  barrows  everywhere.  At  Barfrestone 
there  is  a  very  fine,  rather  rude,  Norman  church.  It  was  originally 
a  votive  chapel. 

Near  Sibertswold — which  one  pronounces  Shepherdswell — is  Walder- 
share,  the  seat  of  the  Earls  of  Guildford.  The  trees  in  the  park  are  very 
beautiful,  and  from  among  them  rises  the  Belvidere,  which  was  designed 
by  Inigo  Jones.  This  latter  is  a  rather  amusing  architectural  feat,  but 
the  view  from  its  top  is  fine  enough. 

The  tract  of  country  north  of  Sibertswold  is  fascinating  and  rather 
mysterious.  One  should  give  in  to  it,  not  asking  one's  way  but  just 
wandering.  The  roads  and  paths  "  bob  up  and  down  "  quite  as  much  as 
they  did  in  Chaucer's  time.  The  real  nature — the  underlying  nature — 
of  the  country  is  bare  and  undulating.  One  comes  upon  great  stubble- 
fields,  or  fields  of  yellow  rape.  But  these  are  alternated  with  patches  of 
shave  and  with  sunken  roads  topped  with  beechen  hedges.  Occasionally, 
at  the  top  of  a  dip,  through  a  gap,  round  an  angle  of  a  hedge,  one  sees 
the  showering  trees  of  one  or  other  of  the  many  parks.  But,  on  the  whole, 
these  wooded  masses  have  rather  the  air  of  an  afterthought,  rather  the 


300  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

air  of  not  being  part  of  the  country's  old  scheme.  It  is  a  great  country 
for  skylarks ;  they  thrill  all  above  the  downs.  They  seem  to  hang  in 
myriads  above  the  head,  their  voices  filtering,  unceasing,  unintermittent, 
through  the  thin  pure  air.  At  times,  to  the  east,  one  catches  glimpses 
of  the  slopes  of  the  Isle  of  Thanet,  very  still,  very  motionless.  At 
times  to  the  south,  at  times  to  the  north,  one  catches  glimpses  of  the 
seas,  more  still,  more  motionless;  mere  phantoms,  blue  and  far  away. 
The  country  is  absolutely  agricultural.  One  might  think  that  nothing 
—no  trade,  no  crafts— could  be  upon  earth  but  that  of  driving  straight 
furrows  from  hedge  to  hedge;  nothing,  no  towns,  no  ports  exist  on 
the  earth,  but  only  the  little  cottages  and  the  great  white  farms  in  the 
sheltered  hollows. 

One  reaches  villages  at  last,  villages  with  strange  names — Womens- 
wold  perhaps,  or  Bekesbourne.  This  last  is  one  of  the  members  of  the 
port  of  Hastings.  Until  comparatively  lately  it  remained  under  the 
government  of  that  place.  "  This  parish,"  says  Ireland,  "  is  exempt  from 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  justices,  and  subject  only  to  those  of  that  town  and 
port.  Until  within  some  years  back  (1828),  the  Mayor  of  Hastings  ap- 
pointed one  of  the  principal  inhabitants  to  act  as  his  deputy  ;  but  that 
custom  is  now  discontinued,  to  the  great  annoyance  of  the  natives,  who 
are  in  consequence  necessitated  to  journey  upward  of  fifty  miles  in  order 
to  obtain  redress  in  cases  of  emergency,  so  that  the  district,  from  that 
inconvenience,  has  become  an  ungovernable  and  lawless  tract  of  country." 
But  this  was  long  since  changed,  and  Bekesbourne  has  become  normally 
observant  of  the  laws. 

Watling  Road  runs  to  the  west  of  these  places,  augmented  near 
Barham  Downs  by  the  highroad  from  Folkestone.  The  broad  level 
uplands  of  the  down  here  have  always  been  favourite  battle-  and  pageant- 
fields  for  invaders  and  friends  of  the  lords  of  this  realm  of  England. 
Here,  according  to  one  theory,  Julius  Caesar  fought  the  embattled 
Britons ;    here,    too,   according   to  another,   the  men   of  Kent  assembled 


DOVER,  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD,  AND  FAVERSHAM.  301 

to  meet  the  Conqueror.  John,  too,  assembled  a  force  of  60,000  men 
on  these  downs,  whilst  preparing  to  meet  Lewis  of  France,  prior  to  his 
own  submission  to  the  Pope;  and  Simon  de  Montfort,  by  his  "general 
muster"  of  the  Barons  on  Barham  Downs,  prevented  the  invasion  of 
England  by  the  foreign  mercenaries  that  Henry  1 1 1. 's  wife  had  gathered 
in  Flanders.  Here,  too,  Henry  VHI.  arranged  a  minor  Field  of  the 
Cloth  -  of  -  Gold  in  honour  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  Nowadays 
golfers  fight  bloodless  battles  on  the  same  spot,  but  the  hills  around 
are  still  studded  with  the  barrows  in  which  sleep  the  forgotten  fighters. 
One  finds  in  them  great  old  skeletons,  and  great  old  swords,  and  neck- 
laces and  coins  and  scores  of  the  little  things  that  mattered  in  the  old 
times  before  our  days. 

From  the  northern  end  of  Barham  Downs  into  Canterbury  is  a 
matter  of  three  or  four  miles  of  stiffly  ascending  and  descending  road. 
From  Canterbury  to  Faversham  the  distance  is  somewhat  greater.  On 
the  way  one  passes  the  village  of  Harbledown,  Chaucer's 

"  Litel  toun 
"  Which  that  y-cleped  is  Bob-up-and-down." 

The  place  is  now  little  more  than  a  suburb  of  Canterbury,  but  one  may 
make  a  digression  to  speak  of  and  to  visit  Lanfranc's  Leper  Hospital 
of  St  Nicholas,  a  saint  well-beloved  by  the  Portsmen.  The  Norman 
church  is  still  moderately  Norman,  but  the  Hospital  was  rebuilt  in  later 
days.  It  remains  quaint  enough.  They  show  one  the  lepers'  platters 
and  trenchers  and  stew-pot,  and  a  number  of  things  that  bring  the 
unfortunate  unclean  a  little  nearer  to  us.  There  remains  even  the 
lepers'  collecting-box,  a  rude  savings-bank,  with  a  slit  in  the  lid — very 
like  some  of  the  lepers'  boxes  that  one  may  still  see  in  the'  less  disturbed 
churchyards  of  Germany.  They  preserved  relics  more  questionable  in 
days  gone  by — relics  more  reprehensible  than  even  the  mazers,  drinking- 
cups  that,   before  they  became  superannuated,  must  have  tempted  many 


302  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

thirsty  souls.  Lambarde,  at  least,  says:  "Behold  here  at  Harbaldoivne 
(an  Hospital  builded  by  Lanfranc  the  Archbishop  for  relief  of  the  poor 
and  diseased)  the  shameful  idolatry  of  this  latter  age,  committed  by  abusing 
the  lips  (which  God  hath  given  for  the  sounding  forth  His  praise)  in 
kissing  and  smacking  the  upper  leather  of  an  old  shoe,  reserved  for  a 
Relique  and  unreverently  offered  to  as  many  as  passed  by. 

"Erasmus  setting  forth  (in  his  dialogue  intituled  Perigrinatio  re- 
ligionis),  under  the  name  of  one  Ogygius,  his  own  travaile  to  visit  our 
Ladie  of  Walsingham  and  St  Thomas  Becket,  sheweth  that  in  his  return 
from  Canterbury  towards  London,  he  found  (on  the  highway-side)  an 
Hospital  of  certain  poor  folks,  of  which  one  came  out  against  him 
and  his  company,  holding  an  holy-water  sprinkle  in  one  hand  and  the 
upper  leather  of  an  old  shoe  (fair  set  in  Copper  and  Christal)  in  the 
other  hand. 

"  This  doting  father  first  cast  holy  water  upon  them  and  then  offered 
them  (by  one  and  one)  the  holy  shoe  to  kisse :  whereat,  as  the  most 
part  of  the  company  (knowing  the  manner)  made  no  refusal :  so  among 
the  rest,  one  Gratianus  (as  he  faineth),  offended  with  the  folly,  asked 
(half  in  anger)  what  it  was.  '  Saint  Thomas  shoe,'  quoth  the  old  man  : 
with  which  Gratianus  turned  him  to  the  company  and  said  :  '  Quid  sibi 
volunt  hce  pecudes,  ut  osculemur  calceos  omttium  virorum  bonorum  ? 
Quin  eadem  opera  porrigunt  osculandum  sputum,  aliaque  corporis  ex- 
crementa  ?  What  mean  these  beasts,  that  we  should  kisse  the  shoes  of 
alt  good  men  ?'  &c." 

But  St  Thomas'  shoe  has  gone  the  way  of  the  sardonic  Erasmus 
of  the  New  Learning,  of  "  William  Lambarde  of  Lincolne's  Inne, 
Gent." 

As  one  walks  between  Canterbury  and  Faversham  one  is  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  hop  country.  Hops  grow  in  every  conceivable  manner — up 
the  old  poles,  up  the  newer  wires.  They  are  sheltered  from  winds  by 
sackcloth    shades,    by    wooden    lews,    by    little    plantations ;    washed    with 


DOVER,  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD,  AND  FAVERSHAM.  303 

all  kind  of  poisonous  fluids.  One  may  be  excused  for  thinking  hops,  for 
talking  hops,  for  having  hops  on  the  brain  :  even  for  humming — 

"  Back  and  side  go  bare,  go  bare ; 
Both  foot  and  hand  go  cold," 

and  so  on  and  so  on  in  the  old  manner ;  for  there  is  something  intoxicating 
in  the  vicinity,  in  the  mere  nearness  of  an  industry  so  widespread,  so 
smiling,  so  essentially  prosperous. 

Faversham  itself  has  always  prospered,  has  always  carried  conviction 
of  prosperity  to  its  visitors.  In  the  time  of  Elizabeth  they  said,  "This 
town  is  well  peopled  and  flourisheth  in  wealth  at  this  day,  notwithstanding 
the  fall  of  the  Abbey.  Which  thing  happeneth  by  a  singular  pre- 
eminence of  the  situation ;  for  it  hath  not  only  the  neighbourhood  of 
one  of  the  most  fruitful  parts  of  this  Shire  (or  rather  of  the  very  Garden 
of  Kent)  adjoyning  by  land,  but  also  a  commodious  creek  that  serveth 
to  bring  in  or  carry  out  by  water  whatsoever  wanteth  or  aboundeth  to 
the  Countrie  about  it." 

What  was  said  then  we  may  echo  to-day.  Faversham  people  will 
tell  you  that  times  are  bad  :  so  they  are,  but  Faversham  seems  to  feel 
the  pinch  less  than  any  other  place.  It  stagnates  a  little  now,  but  it 
still  preserves  the  savour  of  ancient  reverence,  of  ancient  worth.  It 
seems  to  remember  well  enough  that  kings  have  slept  in  its  houses, 
have  been  buried  in  its  abbey,  have  been  held  prisoner  within  its  walls. 
It  remembers  these  things  and  does  not  trouble  much  about  the  rest. 
The  abbey  has  disappeared,  but  its  broad  market  street  is  full  of  old 
houses.  At  its  upper  end  stands  the  market-house,  a  quaint  enough 
seventeenth-century  structure  standing  on  sturdy  piles.  Its  noble  church 
has  been  restored  out  of  all  knowledge;  but  it  still  retains  its  com- 
modious creek  that  serveth  to  bring  in  and  carry  out  by  water.  It 
preserves,  too,  its  Company  of  Free  Dredgers,  which  is  said  to  be  the 
oldest  corporation  of  its  kind   in   the  kingdom.      It  was  in  existence  in 


304  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

the  time  of  Henry  II.,  and  it  still  carries  on  its  work  as  it  did  then. 
Faversham,  in  fact  and  on  the  whole,  is  the  pleasantest  and  quaintest 
and  the  least  spoilt  of  the  towns  in  the  neighbourhood.  Alone  among 
the  Ports  and  their  members  it  has  preserved  something  of  its  ancient 
character,  something  of  its  original  prosperity.  The  others  have  all, 
either,  like  Hastings  and  Dover,  lost  all  savour  of  ancient  grace,  of 
ancient  leisure,  or,  like  Winchelsea  and  Sandwich,  have  lost  all  touch 
with  the  times. 


SANDWICH.  FLATS 


Q' 


~-\ 


:iA 


St  Clement's,  Sandwich. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 


SANDWICH    AND    ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD. 


Sandwich  is  richer  in  early  historical  associations  than  any  of  the 
Cinque  Ports — richer  even  than  Dover,  though  the  role  it  played  in 
the  development  of  the  nation  was  not  so  large.  It  was  not  so  national 
a  port,  had  not  so  national  a  history  ;  but  such  as  it  is,  its  history  seems 
more  personal,  quainter,  more  pathetic.  Winchelsea  is  perhaps  the  more 
desirable  place  to-day — is  the  more  sympathetic  ;  but  its  sudden  flare  of 
glory,  its  arrogance,  its  swift  decay  make  it  less  pleasant,  historically 
speaking.  But,  save  for  these  two,  the  Ports  can  show  nothing  to 
compare  with  the  silent  town  among  the  sand-dunes.  Its  history,  too, 
is  clearer,  sharper  cut,  than  that  of  any  of  the  others.  There  is  little 
doubt  about  its  origins,  its  vicissitudes,  its  growths,  and  its  decays.  It 
stands  out  clearly — distant  enough,   minute  enough,   but  very  clear. 

To  beyin  with,  there  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  the  Romans  never 
were  in  Sandwich.  That  perhaps  accounts  for  its  pleasantness.  It  was 
a  place  that  meant  nothing  to  that  gross  horde  of  materialists.  Caesar, 
we    are    told,   landed    within   its   liberties.      I    have    already  touched    upon 

V 


3o6  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

the  matter  of  his  landing;  have  broached  the  theory  that  appealed  to 
me.  The  more  orthodox  one — the  theory  of  archaeologists  and  emperors 
—is  much  as  follows.  Napoleon  makes  ^  Caesar  leave  Boulogne  towards 
midnight  on  the  24th-2  5th  of  August  in  the  year  699  a.u.c.  ;  makes 
him  come  in  touch  with  Great  Britain  at  Dover  at  10  o'clock  of  the 
following  morning.  On  the  Dover  cliffs  he  sees  the  Britons  drawn  up. 
He  journeys  about  seven  miles  to  the  eastward — to  where  the  cliffs 
of  the  South  Foreland  dip  down.  He  stops  in  front  of  the  open 
beach  which  stretches  from  Walmer  to  Deal.  The  Britons,  under- 
standing his  manoeuvre,  follow  in  hot  haste,  preceded  by  their  cavalry 
and  their  chariots.  Then  followed  the  famous  landing,  when  the 
Romans  were  afraid  until  the  standard-bearer  of  the  tenth  legion 
leapt  into  the  sea  and  led  the  attack.  Caesar  makes  his  camp  "sur  la 
hauteur  de  Walmer."  Napoleon  III.  gave  a  good  deal  of  attention — or 
had  it  given  for  him — to  the  matter  of  the  locality  of  Caesar's  landing, 
and  no  doubt  his  account  is  upon  the  whole  more  to  be  trusted  than 
my  own.  He  accords  a  certain  amount  of  attention  to  the  "  Lympne 
theory,"  but  dismisses  it  upon  quite  erroneous  grounds.  Sdys  he  :  "  Le 
peu  d'elevation  de  la  plaine  au  dessus  du  niveau  de  la  mer,  ainsi  que  la 
nature  du  sol,  porte  a  conclure  que  la  mer  la  recouvrait  jadis  .  .  .  excepte 
toutefois  dans  la  partie  appelee  le  Dymchurch  Wall."  This  is  rather 
nonsensical ;  it  is  at  least  more  or  less  certain  that  Dymchurch  Wall 
did  not  exist  in  the  time  of  Julius  Caesar,  and  more  or  less  certain  that 
it  was  erected  either  by  the  Romans  themselves  or  by  subsequent  in- 
dwellers  of  the  March — possibly  by  Teutonic  inhabitants  during  Roman 
times.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Emperor  of  the  French  was  not  well 
informed  as  to  the  Dymchurch  Wall,  for  he  calls  it  "une  longue  langue 
de  terre  sur  laquelle  s'elevent  aujourd'hui  trois  forts  et  neuf  batteries"; 
but  as  a  matter  of  fact,  with  the  exception  of  the  martello  towers,  which 
are  neither  forts  nor   batteries,   there  are   neither   of  these   fortifications 

'  Vie  de  Jules  C^sar. 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  307 

on  the  wall.  There  is  Fort  Moncrief  at  one  extremity,  and  there  was 
a  battery  at  Dungeness — but  neither  of  these  are  on  Dymchurch  Wall. 
This  fact  of  course  establishes  nothing,  proves  no  more  than  that 
Napoleon  III.,  and  his  fellow-thinkers  who  came  before  and  after  him, 
occasionally  nodded.  Caesar  in  fact  may  very  well  have  landed  at  Deal, 
but  he  may  equally  well  have  done  so  at  Bonnington.  It  is  true  there 
are  some  mounds  near  Deal  called  "  Romeswork "  ;  but  then  near  Bon- 
nington there  is  a  town  called  Romney.  The  one  name  proves  just  as 
much  as  the  other.  According  to  Napoleon,  Caesar's  second  disembark- 
ation took  place  at  nearly  the  same  spot  on  the  coast  between  Deal  and 
Walmer,  and  his  second  camp  occupied  much  the  same  site  as  his  first. 

With  the  vanishing  of  the  lightning-flash  of  Caesar's  despatches 
these  indistinctly  seen  south-eastern  shores  disappear  from  the  historic  eye. 
They  reappear  again  clearly  enough  at  the  time  when  the  Roman  dominion 
in  the  country  was  finally  established.  At  that  time,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, the  Isle  of  Thanet  was  as  much  of  an  island  as,  let  us  say,  Tas- 
mania. It  was  separated  from  the  rest  of  Kent  by  what  was  practically  an 
elbow  of  the  sea.  Into  this  ran  a  number  of  streams  like  the  Stour  and 
the  Wantsum.  This  channel  formed  then,  as  it  did  for  centuries  after,  the 
most  practicable  route  from  the  Channel  to  the  mouth  of  the  Thames 
and  London.  Its  entrance  was  probably  sheltered  by  the  Goodwin  Sands, 
its  course  by  the  highlands  on  either  bank.  Ships  passing  through  it 
had,  in  fact,  practically  surmounted  the  last  of  the  perils  attendant 
on  a  journey  from  the  Mediterranean  to  London.  At  either  end  of  this 
channel  the  Romans  had  built  a  strong  fortress — that  of  Regulbium  on 
the  north  and  that  of  Rutupiae  on  the  south.  Both  of  these  were  under 
the  command  of  the  often-mentioned  Count  of  the  Saxon  shore.  The  castle 
at  the  Reculvers  has  been  almost  entirely  swallowed  up  by  the  sea,  that 
at  Richborough  to  some  extent  preserved  by  the  sea's  sands ;  but  in  their 
own  day  these  castles  and  this  tract  of  land  were  famous  throughout  the 
Roman  world.     They  were  mentioned  by  Lucan,  by  Tacitus,  by  Juvenal,  by 


3o8  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

Ammianus  Marcellinus,  and  by  a  host  of  other  writers.  The  harbour  was 
famous,  the  storms  that  raged  outside  famous,  the  oysters  above  all  famous. 

"  Circeis  nata  forent  an 
Lucrinum  ad  Saxum,  Rutupinse  edita  fundo 
Ostrea,  callebat  primo  deprendere  morso." 

Nearly  all  the  Roman  expeditions  that  from  time  to  time  crossed  the 
Channel  landed  at  Rutupiae — which  Marcellinus  calls  "  siationem  ex 
adverso  tranquillam."  Thus  came  Theodosius  the  Elder,  who  was  sent 
to  quell  the  Picts  and  Scots ;  Lupicinus,  who  came  against  the  Saxons  ; 
later,  the  Emperor  Constans.  During  the  anarchic  times  which  saw 
the  weakening  of  the  grasp  of  Rome,  Magnus  Maximus,  who  was  a 
kind  of  Far  Western  Emperor  of  Roman  Britain,  Gaul,  and  Spain,  was 
called  by  the  Romans  "the  Rutupine  Robber."  He  seems,  neverthe- 
less, to  have  been  popular  enough  in  his  own  dominions,  for  Bede  calls 
him  "vir  strenuus  et  probus,''  and  his  coins  accord  him  the  title  of 
"  Restitutor  Reipublicae." 

We  know  from  the  Notitia  that  at  Reculver  there  were  stationed 
the  first  cohort  of  Vetasians ;  at  Richborough  the  second  legion,  sur- 
named  Augusta ;  but  there  remain  no  traces  of  there  ever  having  been 
a  town  in  either  place,  though  Richard  of  Cirencester  styles  the 
place  a  colony.  The  remains  of  Richborough  have  provided  endless 
occupation  for  the  archaeologist.  The  number  of  coins  that  have  been 
found  there  is  almost  incredible.  Battely  mentions  a  vast  number, 
and  Battely  was  by  no  means  the  first  on  the  ground;  Roach  Smith 
catalogued  and  described  an  equally  large  number,  and  the  researches  of 
the  Kent  Archa;ological  Society,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Dowker,  led 
to  equally  interesting  finds.  Besides  coins,  have  been  found  at  one  period 
and  another  an  equally  vast  number  of  objects  of  personal  interest— 
steleyards,  weights,  knives,  keys,  styles,  brooches,  and  so  on  and  so  on.^ 

•  'Arch.   Cant,'  vols,    v,  vi,   vii,   &c.  ;  and    'The   Antiquities  of  Richborough,   Reculver,  and 
Lymne  {sic)^  by  C.  Roach    Smith,  1880. 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  309 

At  precisely  what  date  the  channel  of  the  Wantsum  began  to  be 
choked  up,  one  does  not  know.  One  may  perhaps  advance  the  theory 
that  the  system  of  cultivation  that  the  Romans  introduced,  here  as  else- 
where, diminished  the  flow  of  the  rivers,  and  allowed  the  lands  to  settle. 

It  is  certain  that  Sandwich  was  a  town  of  early  Saxon  foundation, 
and  its  proximity  to  Richborough  seems  to  vouch  for  a  connection 
between  the  two  places ;  but  what  that  connection  was  is  uncertain. 
Indeed  there  is  enough  of  mist  to  obscure  entirely  one's  view  of 
the  period.  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  tells  us  that  Aurelius  Ambrosius 
confined  the  Saxons  to  Thanet,  and  finally  utterly  routed  them,  Eldol 
decapitating  Hengist.^  Arthur  himself  is  said  to  have  done  this  very 
thing ;  but  there  are  people  who  doubt  the  veracity  of  Geoffrey  of 
Monmouth  or  the  very  existence  of  Arthur.  We  come  then,  again,  to 
the  defeat  of  the  Saxons  "in  campo  juxta  Lapidem  Tituli."  There 
seems  little  doubt  that  this  must  have  taken  place  at  Stonor,  though 
some  historians  claim  the  honour  for  Folkestone,  and  Battely^  learnedly 
advances  the  claims  of  what  to-day  we  call  Littlestone-on-Sea.  But 
whether  the  British  victory  took  place  under  Arthur  or  under  Guor- 
thigirn,  whether  at  Folkestone  or  Stonor,  it  is  certain  that  it  stayed 
the  tide  but  a  little  while. 

We  know  that  the  Saxons  founded  the  towns  of  Sandwich  and 
Stonor,  and  it  is  stated  that  the  Saxon  kings  converted  the  Roman 
castle  of  Richborough   into   a  royal  palace.       Ethelbert,    indeed,    is   said 

'  'Geoffrey    of     Monm.,'     Hist.     Brit,     Lib.  gerum    limitem   noveritis   et   confinium.'    Juris- 

viii.,  &c.  consulti  :   'Titules  in  prsediis  dicent  esse  tabu- 

''  Battely  says :    "  Quid,   interim    ego   de   hac  las    in    quibus    Dominorum    nomina    inscripta 

re  sentiam;  paucis  dicam  ;    Erat   olim  in'Aus-  erant,     cujus     prsedia     essent,     cognosceretur.' 

trali  Cantii  angulo  Lapis  Finalis  sive  termin-  Quorum   lingua   usus    Chrysologus    '  Dominum, 

alls,  qui  vocabratur   Lapis  appositus  in  ultitno  inquit,   praediorum  limitibus   affixi    tituli    prolo- 

terra,   nunc  autem    Stone   end.      Lapides  vero  quuntur.'       Erant    igitur    Lapides    Tituli,    quot 

finales,  si   inscriptum    quid  haberent,   agrimen-  quot  in  limitibus  positi  titulum,  sive  insculptum 

sores     Titulos    appellabant.       Unde    Venantius  sive    affixum    habebant."  —  Antiquitates    Rutu- 

Fortunatos,     '  Titulum    hunc,    ait,    horum    ju-  pinae,  p.  19. 


310  THE  CINQUE  PORTS. 

there  to  have  received  St  Augustine,  though,  as  far  as  I  am  aware, 
there  is  nothing  to  confirm  this  statement.  That  Augustine  landed  on 
the  Isle  of  Thanet  we  know,  and  Bede  tells  us  that  Ethelbert  came 
there  to  meet  him ;  but  Richborough  cannot  be  called  on  the  isle. 
Thorne,  however,  makes  the  landing  take  place  at  a  spot  which  he  calls 
Retesborough ;  so  that,  if  we  care  to  believe  Thorne,  and  to  believe  him 
capable  of  such  misspelling,  we  may  accept  that  fact  as  far  as  it  goes. 
Leland,  indeed,  makes  Richborough  a  part  of  Thanet,  saying  that  the 
water  ran  round  it  to  the  eastward.  This  the  water  undoubtedly  did, 
but  it  had  the  effect  of  making  Richborough  an  island.  In  the  course 
of  time  Sandwich  grew  into  being.  It  seems  by  no  means  im- 
possible that  Richborough  actually  was,  or  contained  a  palace  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  kings.  Amongst  the  Roman  relics  discovered  by  Roach 
Smith  were  several  personal  ornaments  that,  aesthetically  at  least,  were 
fit  for  any  king — were  as  good  as  those  possessed  by  any  modern  king. 
Thus  the  place  was  certainly  frequented  by  Saxons  of  position. 

Possibly  there  was  a  Saxon  town  round  the  southern  wall  of  the 
castle — a  Saxon  town  that  followed  the  sea  as  it  receded,  just  as  did 
Romney  and  Hythe ;  possibly  Sandwich  grew  spontaneously.  It  had 
in  those  times,  and  for  several  succeeding  hundreds  of  years — let  us 
say  from  the  first  to  the  twelfth  centuries — a  serious  rival  in  Stonor  just 
across  the  water.  Both  these  towns  may  be  said  to  have  grown  out 
of  the  Roman  castle  of  Rutupise.  Sarre  was  perhaps  the  pendant  of 
Regulbium.  It  must  in  Anglo-Saxon  days  have  been  a  place  of  some 
consideration.  The  finds  of  Saxon  relics  in  its  burial-ground^  have 
been  as  numerous  as  those  of  Roman  in  either  Richborough  or  Reculver, 
but  very  little  documentary  traces  of  the  town's  importance  remain. 

The  channel  of  what  it  is  convenient  to  call  the  Wantsum  retained, 
too,  its  Roman  feature  of  a  fortress  at  either  end  ;  though  the  fortress,  to 
suit  Saxon  requirements,  became  more  or  less  fortified.     It  retained,  too, 

1  '  Arch.  Cant.,'  as  above. 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  311 

its  uses  as  the  principal  highway  to  the  growing  town  of  London.  To 
such  an  extent,  indeed,  was  this  the  case  that  Sandwich  may  be  called 
almost  as  local  in  its  relation  to  the  capital  as  were  Hythe  and  Romney 
to  Kent  and  the  Marsh.  One  of  the  twin  towns  was  actually  called 
Lundenwic,  and  owed  a  certain  allegiance  to  London.  This  was  most 
probably  Stonor.  The  matter  is,  however,  debatable.^  Eddius  Stephanus, 
who  wrote  in  the  seventh  century  the  life  of  Bishop  Wilfrithus,  speaks 
of  that  saint  as  landing  at  Sandwich,  whilst  the  eighth-century  charter 
of  Eadbert  still  speaks  of  Lundenwic.  Thus  Lundenwic  must  have 
existed  after  Sandwich  changed  its  name,  if  it  ever  did  so.  In  any 
case,  there  was  great  rivalry  between  the  two  ports,  and  the  rivalry  was 
rendered  none  the  less  strenuous  by  the  fact  that  both  were  granted  to 
monastic  bodies.  Sandwich  was  perhaps  fortunate  in  falling  to  the  lot  of 
Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  who  seem  to  have  had  some  subtle  organising 
power,  or  else  to  have  been  extremely  lucky  in  the  ports  that  were 
apportioned  to  them.  Romney  certainly  owed  much  to  their  governing, 
so  did  Hythe,  so  Dover,  and  so  doubtless  Sandwich.  Indeed,  the  question 
suggests  itself  whether  or  not  the  early  prosperity  and  the  subsequent 
perfection  of  organisation  of  the  Cinque  Ports  did  not  arise  from  their 
tutelage  under  the  Christ  Church  Religious.  In  that  case  we  may  trace 
their  rise  from  the  traditions  imparted  to  Christ  Church  by  the  tenth- 
century  Archbishop  Dunstan  of  blessed  memory.  Dunstan  was  a  saint 
whom  we  may  find  temperamentally  uncongenial,  but  he  was  an  organiser 
of  unrivalled  shrewdness.  He  had  a  power  over  Edgar  which  allowed 
him  to  consolidate  and  to  mould  the  fortunes  of  the  diocese  of  Canterbury 
in  a  way  which  certainly  smoothed  the  path  for  prelates  like  Lanfranc 
and  Becket. 

Less  fortunate  than  its  rival,  Stonor  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  monks 

1  Kemble  ('The  Saxons  in  England,'  De  Hlothaere,  Vita  Bonifac,  and  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Gray  Birch's  ed.,  vol.  ii.,  App.  C.)  calls  Lon-  Chron.  ;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  all  these  autho- 
don    itself    Lundenwic,    quoting    the    laws    of      rities  tell  rather  in  favour  of  the  Thanet  town. 


312  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

of  St  Augustine's,  Canterbury.  This  came  about  in  the  reign  of  Canute, 
and  it  is,  if  not  significant,  at  least  suggestive  that  from  the  eleventh 
century  one  must  date  the  decline  of  this  formidable  port. 

Rich  though  the  neighbourhood  be  in  historical  data,  it  is  even  richer 
in  that  pleasanter  sort  of  data— the  legendary.  Thus  one  may  go  out  of 
one's  way  to  rehearse  the  "gesta"  of  the  famous  woman  that  founded  the 
nunnery  at  Minster  in  Thanet.  One  may  take  a  purple  patch  from  Lam- 
barde,  who  got  his  facts  from  William  Thorne,  a  St  Augustine's  chronicler, 
and  from  the  '  Nova  Legenda  Angliae.'     Says  he  : — 

"Certain  officers  of  Egbright  had  done  great  injury  to  a  noble 
woman  called  Domnewa  (the  mother  of  Saint  Mildred),  in  recompense  of 
which  wrongs  the  King  made  an  Herodian  oath  and  promised  upon  his 
honor  to  give  her  whatever  she  would  ask  him. 

"  The  woman  (instructed,  belike,  by  some  Monkish  chronicler)  begged 
of  him  so  much  ground  to  build  an  Abbay  on,  as  a  tame  Deer  (that  she 
nourished)  would  run  over  at  a  breath  ;  hereto  the  King  had  consented 
forthwith,  seeing  that  one  Tymor  (a  counsellor  of  his)  standing  by,  blamed 
him  of  great  inconsideration,  for  that  he  would,  upon  the  uncertain  course 
of  a  Deer,  depart  to  his  certain  losse,  with  any  part  of  so  good  a  soil. 
But  the  Earth  immediately  opened  and  swalled  him  alive,  in  memory 
whereof  the  place  is  called   Tymor  s  leape. 

"  Well,  the  King  and  this  Gentlewoman  proceeded  in  their  bargain  ; 
the  Hynde  was  put  forth,  and  it  ran  the  space  of  fourty  and  eight  Plough- 
lands  before  it  ceased.  And  thus  Domnewa  (by  the  help  of  the  King) 
builded  at  Minster  a  monastery  or  Minster  of  Nuns.  .  .  .  Over  this 
Abbay  of  Mynster,  Mildred  .  .  .  became  the  Ladye  and  Abbasse  :  who, 
because  she  was  of  noble  lineage  and  had  gotten  together  seventy  women 
(all  which  Thiodorus,  the  seventh  Bishop,  veiled  for  Nunns),  she  easily 
obteined  to  be  registered  in  our  English  Kalender.  .  .  .  And  no  marvell 
at  all,  for,  if  you  will  believe  the  work  called  {Nova  Legenda  Anglics)  your- 
self will  easily  vouchsafe  her  the  honour. 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  313 

"  This  woman  (saith  he)  was  so  mightily  defended  with  divine  power 
that  lying  in  a  hot  oven  three  hours  together  she  suffered  not  of  the  flame  : 
she  was  also  endued  with  such  godlike  vertue,  that  comming  out  of  France 
the  very  stone  whereon  she  first  stepped  at  Ippedsfleete  received  the  impres- 
sion of  her  foot.  .  .  .  And  finally,  she  was  diligently  guarded  with  God's 
Angell  attending  upon  her,  that  when  the  Devill  (finding  her  at  praiers) 
had  put  out  the  candell  that  was  before  her,  the  Angell  forthwith  lighted 
it  for  her." 

With  the  coming  of  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries,  however,  the 
day  of  these  tranquil  saints  was  over;  the  time  was  come  for  their 
successors  to  be  calendared  as  martyrs  as  well.  The  Saxon  freebooters 
had  to  undergo  the  assaults,  and  in  the  end  the  yoke,  of  other  free- 
booters. As  it  had  formed  the  first  camping-ground  of  the  Jutes, 
so  Thanet  was  fated  to  become  the  principal  stronghold  of  the  Danes. 
Their  first  attempts  were  more  or  less  tentative.  In  787,  it  is  said,  men 
from  three  Danish  ships  landed  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Sandwich, 
where  they  were  confronted  by  the  reeve  of  Beorthrick,  King  of 
Wessex.  Him  they  incontinently  slew,  whereupon  the  people  of  the 
adjoining  country  assembled  and  beat  them  back  to  their  ships.  In  851, 
according  to  Matthew  Paris,  Athelstan  defeated  the  Danes  in  a  great 
naval  battle  fought  off  Sandwich,  but  the  Danes  gradually  became  too 
firmly  established  in  the  Isle  of  Thanet  to  be  permanently  beaten  off.^ 

They  probably  proved  very  unpleasant  neighbours  for  poor  Sandwich, 
which  little  by  little  became  their  head  port.  Thus  in  993  and  1006  it 
became  their  headquarters.  In  1007  Ethelred  the  Unready  had  recourse 
to  the  famous  device  of  ship-money,  and  by  its  means  raised  "the  finest 
fleet  that  England  had  ever  seen."  But  Ethelred  was  more  fortunate  in 
his  contrivance   "that  every  310  Hides  of  lands  should  be  charged  with 

'  There  is  a  reference  to  the  slaying  of  120  however,  to  refer  to  Swanage.  The  place  is 
Danes  at  Sandwich,  a.d.  877  (Chronologia  Rerum  indifferently  called  Sandwic,  Swanewic,  Swana- 
Septentr.,  Langebek,  vol.  v.  p.  86).     This  seems,      wine,  &c. 


314  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

the  furnishing  of  one  ship  and  every  ten  Hides  one  Jack  and  Sallet " 
than  happy  in  the  use  he  made  of  his  noble  fleet.  It  duly  assembled  in 
Sandwich  haven,  and  there  slowly  fell  to  pieces. 

Sandwich  had  to  undergo  another  visitation  from  Sweyn  and  Cnut  in 
1013/  and  in  10 14  the  latter  there  set  ashore  his  luckless  hostages,  to 
whom  he  had  "most  barbarously  behaved  himself,  cutting  off  the  hands 
and  feet  of  such  as  he  had  taken."  ^  This  was  in  revenge  for  the 
treacherous  massacre  of  the  Danes  after  St  Martin's  drunken  feast. 
After  that  time  the  Danes  visited  Sandwich  almost  yearly,  being  again 
and  again  bought  off  by  Ethelred.  Cnut,  however,  does  not  seem 
to  have  despised  Sandwich,  for  we  read  that  when  the  country  definitely 
fell  into  his  hands  he  busied  himself  with  "finishing  the  building  of  the 
town."  At  the  same  time  he  confirmed  the  charters  which  made  it  the 
property  of  Christ  Church.  He  also  presented  to  these  monks  St 
Bartholomew's  arm,  a  rich  pall,  a  crown  of  gold,  and  "this  haven  of 
Sandwiche,  together  with  the  Royaltie  of  the  water  on  each  side,  so  far 
forth  as  (a  ship  being  on  float  at  the  full  sea)  a  man  might  cast  a  hatchet 
out  of  the  vessell  unto  the  bank."  Not  content  with  these  ratifications 
of  the  charters  of  Christ  Church,  Cnut  granted  to  St  Augustine's  the 
Abbey  of  Minster,  and,  as  I  have  already  said,  the  town  of  Stonor. 

The  days  of  Sandwich's  flourishing  were  at  hand — had  arrived. 
The  author  of  the  "Encomium  Emmse,"  when  mentioning  the  arrival  of 
Cnut  at  the  port,  styles  it  "the  most  famous  of  all  the  English  towns," '^ 


1  "  A.D.  MXIll°-  Swanus  .  .  .  cum  classe  '  "  Expectabili  itaque  ordine,  statu  secundo, 
valida  ...  ad  Sandwicum,  portum  in  Anglia  Sandwich  qui  est  omnium  Anglorum  portuum 
appHcuit  " — Matt.  Westmon.,  Flores  Hist.,  ed.  famosissimus,  sunt  appulsi ;  ejectisque  anchoris, 
1890,  vol.  i.  p.  535.  baculis    se    exploratores    se    dedunt    littori,    et 

2  "  Cnuto  quoque  fuga  praesidio  elapsus  cum  citissimi  finitima  tellure  explorata  ad  noto 
classe  sua  ad  Sandwii  portum  .  .  .  applicuit,  ubi  recurrunt  navigia,  Regique  dicunt  adesse 
in  contumeliam  gentis  Anglorum  obsides  omnes  resistentium  parata  milia." — Encomium  Emmae, 
qui  patri  suo  de  regno  Angliae  dati  fuerant,  trun-  Langebek,  Scriptores  Rer.  Danic,  vol.  ii.  pp.  481, 
catis  manibus  auribus  prsecisis,  naribus  que  am-  482.  Matt.  Paris  says  :  "  Itaque  ad  Sandwici 
putatis,  abire  permisit." — Ibid.,  p.  538.  portum  cum  valida  classe  applicuit,"  &c. 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS   NEIGHBOURHOOD.  315 

and  this  it  remained  throughout  the  duration  of  the  Danish  dominion. 
The  Danes,  however,  have  left  practically  no  traces  of  their  having  been 
in  the  place,  have  left  no  mark  on  the  face  of  the  land.  One  or  two 
runic  stones  of  uncertain  origin  have,  it  is  true,  been  found  at  Sandwich, 
and  one  or  two  Sceattas  at  Sarre,  but  that  is  all.  There  is,  it  is  true, 
the  legend  from  which  we  learn  that  "  flatterers  exist  alway,"  but,  save 
for  this,  the  passage  of  the  Northmen  was  a  rather  silent  one. 

Sandwich,  nevertheless,  retained  its  prestige  under  the  Confessor. 
We  hear  several  times  that  he  departed  from  London  for  Sandwich  with 
so  many  ships  ;  once,  like  Ethelred,  he  lay  in  the  haven  "with  so  great 
a  strength  that  no  man  hath  in  this  land  seen  a  greater."  Between  1044 
and  1054  Edward  had  to  contend  with  the  Norwegians ;  the  Danes,  who 
again  made  a  descent  upon  Sandwich ;  the  Count  of  Flanders,  and  the 
great  Earl  Godwin.  During  the  struggles  with  the  first  three  Edward 
had  the  help  of  the  Danegelt,  but  immediately  after  the  first  banishing 
of  Godwin  the  king  remitted  this  tax.  Godwin  was  not  slow  to  take 
advantage  of  this  voluntary  emasculation.  He  collected  a  fleet  from  his 
own  Kentish  ports,  and  very  speedily  brought  the  king  to  his  knees.  He 
did  not,  however,  take  Sandwich  at  his  first  attempt,  although  he  made 
for  that  port.  It  was,  however,  in  the  hands  of  the  Earls  Ralph  and 
Odda,  who  were  supported  by  a  powerful  force.  Godwin,  therefore, 
made  for  Pevensey.  This  was  in  1052.  During  his  second  expedition, 
however,  he  was  received  at  Sandwich,  as  at  the  rest  of  the  ports,  with 
the  acclamation  due  to  the  saviour  of  the  country.  Here,  as  elsewhere, 
"  every  ship  in  the  haven  was  freely  placed  at  the  bidding  of  their  lawful 
Earl."^  Godwin  reached  London,  ejected  the  king's  Norman  favourites, 
and  was  reconciled  to  the  king  at  a  great  Gemot. 

It  was  by  no  means  Godwin's  policy  to  take  any  vengeance  on 
places   like   Sandwich,   which   had    been   defended   against   him  Whether 

'  'Norman  Conquest,'  vol.  ii.  p.  325  et  seqq.    The  authorities  are  the  Chronicles  of  Peterborough, 
Abingdon,  and  Worcester. 


3i6  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

they  would  or  no.  Thus  the  town  steadily  continued  its  fortunate  career. 
•As  a  matter  of  fact,  for  the  next  seventeen  years,  most  of  them  eventful 
enough  to  the  nation,  we  hear  nothing  of  events  at  Sandwich.  Boys 
in  his  'Annals'  finds  nothing  to  be  mentioned  until  the  year  1075,  when 
William  confirmed  the  grant  of  Odo  to  Christ  Church.  But  we  know 
that  Sandwich  incidentally  helped  to  resist  the  Norman  yoke ;  beat  off 
the  Danes  that  were  to  have  aided  the  English.  Before  this,  the 
town  had  afforded  a  temporary  shelter  to  Tostig,  Harold's  traitor  brother. 
Harold  upon  hearing  of  Tostig's  landing  hastened  to  attack  him.  But 
"  when  Tostig  heard  that  Harold  the  king  was  toward  Sandwich,  then 
fared  he  from  Sandwich  and  took  of  the  boat-carles  some  with  him, 
some  willing,  some  unwilling."^  When,  three  years  afterwards,  Osbeorn 
made  his  coup  d'essai  at  Sandwich  he  was  repulsed  by  the  Normans, 
who  were  then  established  there  under  Odo  of  Bayeux. 

We  come  then  to  the  Domesday- Book  account  of  the  town. 
"  Sandwice,"  we  read,  "lies  in  its  own  hundred.  This  burgh  the  Arch- 
bishop holds,  and  it  is  for  the  clothing  of  the  monks,  and  renders  to 
the  king  the  like  service  as  Dover.  And  the  men  of  that  burgh  testify 
this,  that  before  King  Edward  gave  it  to  St  Trinity,  it  rendered  to 
the  king  fifteen  pounds.  At  the  time  of  the  death  of  King  Edward  it 
was  not  at  farm.  When  the  Archbishop  received  it,  it  rendered  fourteen 
pounds  of  farm  and  forty  thousand  herrings  for  the  sustenance  of  the 
monks.  In  the  year  in  which  this  description  was  made,  Sanuwic 
rendered  fifty  pounds  of  farm  and  herrings  as  formerly.  T.R.E., 
there  were  three  hundred  and  seven  messuages  with  residencies  there; 
now  there  are  seventy-six  more;  that  is  together,  three  hundred  and 
eighty-three."  ^ 

From  this  we  may  judge  that  Sandwich  was  a  place  of  very  consider- 

1  "),a  Tostig  >aet   geaxode   >aet   Harold   cing  was   toward   Sanduic,  ],a  for   he  of  Sandwic  & 
nam  of  Jiam  butsekerlen  sume  mid  him,  sume  Jjances,  sume  unpances."— Chron.  Ab. 
^  Domesday  Book  of  Kent,  Larking's  ed. 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  317 

able  dimensions  in  the  year  of  the  survey.  The  tenure  of  the  monks 
was  to  some  extent  exceptional.  They  were  under  the  superinten- 
dence, not  of  the  archbishops,  as  was  the  case  with  Hythe,  but  of  the 
priors  of  Christ  Church — or  of  Holy  Trinity,  as  it  was  sometimes  called. 
The  matter  is  said  to  have  arisen  as  follows.  Odo  of  Bayeux,  upon 
the  expulsion  of  Archbishop  Stigand,  seized  both  the  town  and  its 
dues.  When  he  was  forced  to  disgorge  he  is  reported  to  have  said  that 
he  surrendered  the  place  not  to  the  archbishop  but  to  the  monastery. 
Why  this  dictum  of  a  spoilt  child  should  have  influenced  matters  one 
does  not  exactly  know  ;  the  fact  remains  that  Sandwich  was  not  nomi- 
nally subject  to  the  archbishops,  though  it  was  actually  under  the  control 
of  Lanfranc  during  that  arch-prelate's  life.  Perhaps  the  place  was 
more  directly  subject  to  the  monks,  because  on  it  fell  the  duty  of  feed- 
ing them.  The  archbishops,  doubtless,  would  have  possessed  it  had 
the  monastic  control  been  disciplinary,  or  anything  other  than  merely 
sumptuary. 

In  the  meanwhile  constant  bickerings  went  on  between  the  re- 
ligious of  Stonor  and  those  of  Sandwich.  The  St  Augustine's  men 
seem,  upon  the  whole,  to  have  been  the  aggressors ;  indeed,  as  the 
fortunes  of  their  towns  in  Thanet  declined  they  left  no  stone  unturned 
in  their  efforts  to  retrieve  their  fortunes.  They  had  commenced  their 
aggressions  even  during  the  days  of  the  Danish  rule,  whilst  in  the 
time  of  Henry  I.  they  actually  went  so  far  as  to  seize  the  possessions 
of  Christ  Church  in  Sandwich.  The  religious  of  Holy  Trinity,  how- 
ever, very  successfully  defended  their  claims  under  the  charter  of  Cnut, 
and  here  again  the  St  Augustine  monks  were  foiled.  Before  this,  in 
1090,  they  had  come  to  loggerheads  with  the  Corporation  of  London 
touching  the  rights  over  the  haven  of  Stonor.^     In  this  suit  they  were 

'  William  Thorne  says  :  "  Gives  Londoniensis  jecto.  Sed  rege  Willelmo  Ruffo  favente  parti 
vendicaverunt  dominium  villae  de  Stonore  tan-  Abbas,"  &c.— Twysden's  '  Decern  Scriptores,'  fol, 
Cjuam  de  maris  portu  civitatis  Lpndpniense  sub-      1733. 


3i8  THE  CINQUE  PORTS. 

successful ;  though,  one  might  imagine,  unjustly  successful.  Lambarde 
indeed  says  they  only  succeeded  by  the  "favourable  aide  of  the  Prince." 
This,  however,  did  not  stop  the  decay  of  the  town,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  town  of  Minster  began  to  decay  owing  to  the  translation  to 
Canterbury  of  the  relics  of  St  Mildred.  In  1121  Henry  I.  conceded 
to  the  monastery  the  right  to  hold  a  market  in  the  town,  but  even  this 
was  ineffectual.^ 

Thus  Sandwich  began  finally  to  outdistance  all  its  rivals  in  the 
eastern  part  of  Kent.  Of  the  once  considerable  town  of  Sarre  little  is 
known.  It  probably  faded  early  out  of  existence.  It  remained,  how- 
ever, the  principal  place  of  ferrying  into  the  island,  though  in  1485  the 
ferry  was  converted  into  a  bridge.  For  the  time,  at  least.  Sandwich 
remained  more  or  less  quiet,  more  or  less  subject  to  the  vicissitudes  of 
London  itself;  indeed,  as  London  grew,  so  may  Sandwich  be  said  to 
have  done.  During  the  whole  of  the  twelfth  century  it  retained  rather 
the  character  of  a  merchant  town  than  of  a  warlike  settlement,  and 
during  that  century  it  laid  the  foundations  of  its  long-lasting  prosperity. 
Its  history  in  the  large  concerns  itself  with  the  departures  and  the 
landings  of  historic  personages.  Thus  in  11 64  Becket  embarked  in 
a  fishing-boat  in  the  harbour  of  Sandwich,  and  the  same  night  landed 
at  Gravelines.  Becket  remained  in  exile  for  some  six  years,  and  then 
set  out  for  Sandwich  again,  exclaiming:  "Vado  in  Angliam  mori" — 
"I  go  into  England  to  die."  The  story  of  his  arrival  in  England 
is  touchingly  told  by  his  pupil,  biographer,  and  accompanier,  Herbert 
of  Bosham.  They  had  erected  a  cross  on  the  prow  of  the  archbishop's 
vessel  that  it  might  be  recognised  by  those  on  shore.  And  an  im- 
mense crowd  of  priests  and  of  poor  people  awaited  his  coming.  And 
when  he  safely  landed  they  met  him,  "  some  humbly  prostrating  them- 
selves to  the  ground,  some  cheering,  some  weeping,  and  all  crying 
with  one  accord,   '  Blessed  is  he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the   Lord, 

'  Ibid.,  fol.  1796, 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  319 

pater  orphanorum  et  judex  viduarum.'  "  ^  And  so  the  archbishop  passed 
on  his  way  to  Canterbury.  But,  "ahhough  the  way  was  short,  he 
hardly  reached  that  town  that  day,  so  many  were  there  crowding  to- 
gether, amongst  the  sounds  of  the  bells,  of  the  organs,  of  the  hymns 
and  the  canticles. "  ^ 

Before  the  end  of  the  century  Sandwich  beheld  another  landing,  when, 
"in  the  year  of  grace  11 94,  the  greater  part  of  his  ransom  being  paid, 
and  hostages  for  the  remainder  being  left,  (Richard  I.)  was  set  free  of 
all  custody  of  the  Emperor  and,  on  the  Dominican  day  after  the  feast 
of  Saint  Gregory,  landed  joyfully  at  the  port  of  Sandwich."  Whilst 
the  king  was  approaching  England  a  herald  of  his  coming  was  seen  in 
the  sky  about  the  second  hour  of  the  day  :  "a  certain  very  serene  and 
unaccustomed  splendour  appeared  undistant  from  the  sun."  It  had  the 
shape  of  a  human  form  and  the  splendour  of  the  rainbow.'  One  does 
not  hear  of  any  popular  joy  at  the  return  of  Lion's  Heart ;  at  least, 
neither  John  of  Brompton  nor  Gervasius  make  mention  of  any,  though 
the  former  says,  "  And  then  first  did  he  believe  himself  free  from 
captivity  when  his  ship  touched  English  ground  "  at  Sandwich. 

With  the  opening  of  the  thirteenth  century  we  come  upon  the  un- 
savoury details  of  the  refuge  of  John  amongst  the  Barons  of  the  Five 
Ports,  upon  the  tragic  details  of  the  burning  of  Sandwich  by  "  Lewis 
the  Dauphin."  One  finds  few  details  of  the  actual  catastrophe,  but 
one  knows,  from  the  fact  that  it  received  several  privileges  from  the 
succeeding  kings,  that  the  disaster  must  have  been  grievous  enough. 
Thus  in  the   2nd   of  Henry    II L   the  town  received   market  rights,  and 


*  Alii  vero   humi   se  humiliter  prosternantes,  in  organis,  in  hymnis  et  ca.nUc\s."—I6id.,  page 

ejulantes   hos,  plorantes    illos    prse   gaudio,    et  478. 

omnes  conclamantes,"  &c. — Robertson's  '  Mate-  ^  "  Secunda  hora  diei  apparuit  quidam  serenis- 

rials,'  vol.  iii.  p.  477.  simus   atque   insolitus   splendor,  non   longius  a 

^  "Cum  vero,  et  si   via  brevis,  inter  tot  tur-  sole    distans,    quam    ad    longitudinem    et   lati- 

bas  occurentes    et    comprimentes,    Cantuariam  tudinem   humani    corporis,"   &c.— Chron.   J.   de 

vix   ea  die  perveniret,  in    sonitu  campanarum,  Oxenedes,  Ellis'  ed.,  p.  95. 


320 


THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 


two  years  later  the  right  to  levy  twopence  per  cask  on  imported 
wine. 

That  Sandwich  had  suffered  more  or  less  severely  one  may  to 
some  extent  gather  from  the  records  of  her  ship  service.  She  seems 
at  this  time  to  have  been  running  a  course  somewhat  similar  to  that  of 
Winchelsea.  Thus  in  12 19  she  supplied  only  five  ships  to  Winchelsea's 
ten  and  Dover's  twenty-one  ;  towards  the  end  of  the  century  she  found 
twelve  to  Winchelsea's  thirteen  and  Dover's  seven,  while  for  the  siege 
of  Calais  in  1347  she  found  twenty-two  ships  with  504  men  to  Winchel- 
sea's twenty-one  ships  and  596  men.  Her  average  service,  according 
to  Jeake,  amounted  to  ten  and  a  half  ships. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  century  the  feuds  between  Sandwich  and 
Stonor  grew  so  virulent^  that  the   king,    seeing  the    necessity  for  inter- 


•  This  was  the  sort  of  thing  that  constantly 
occurred  : — 

"  1280. — A  writ  of  inquiry  issued  this  year 
at  the  suit  of  the  abbot  of  St.  Augustin,  who 
sets  forth  that  he  has  a  wall  of  sand  and  stone 
between  Stanore  and  Clivesende,  by  which  his 
manor  of  Menstre  is  protected  from  the  rage 
of  the  sea,  and  that  the  people  of  Sandwich 
by  force  dig  up  the  materials  and  carry  them 
away  in  their  boats,  and  will  not  suffer  the 
abbot's  officers  to  distrain  a  legal  way  for  the 
trespass,  but  even  bring  armed  men  in  their 
boats  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  such  dis- 
tress :  and  that  he  has  a  marsh  belonging  to 
himself  in  right  of  his  barony  between  Stanore 
and  Hippelesflete,  into  which  the  people  of  Sand- 
wich come  without  leave,  and,  against  the  peace 
and  the  consent  of  the  said  abbot,  dig  the  soil 
and  carry  it  away  in  their  boats  by  force  to 
Sandwich  for  filling  up  and  repairing  their 
wharfs,  and  bring  armed  men  with  them  as  afore- 
said for  their  protection  :  and  further,  that  he 
has  a  market  and  a  fair  in  his  manor  of  Menstre 
on  his  own  ground,  to  which  the  men  of  Sand- 
wich resort,  and  there  hire  ground  and  thereon 


set  up  stalls,  for  which  they  refuse  to  pay  stall- 
age ;  and  when  his  bailiffs  distrain  them  for 
stallage  according  to  custom,  they  make  re- 
prisal and  seize  his  rents  to  the  amount  of  20s. 
within  the  town  of  Sandwich.  The  said  abbot 
further  sets  forth  that  he  had  a  windmill  and 
a  watermill  in  the  same  marsh,  from  which  he 
used  to  receive  every  year  fifty  quarters  of 
corn,  which  were  burnt  by  the  men  of  Sand- 
wich, &c. 

"  The  mayor  and  bailiffs  with  others  of  the 
town  of  Sandwich  appear  and  say,  that  they 
have  always  hitherto  had  this  privilege  among 
the  liberties  granted  to  the  port's  men  by  the 
kings  of  England,  that  they  may  not  be  im- 
pleaded or  answer  to  any  plea  except  in  the 
town  of  Sandwich,  and  they  request  that  their 
franchise  in  this  point  may  not  be  injured. 
Being  asked  whether  the  town  of  Stanore  be- 
longed to  the  port  of  Sandwich  and  was  claimed 
by  them  as  a  member  of  the  said  port,  they 
replied  that  it  belonged  to  the  port  of  Sand- 
wich."—MS.  penes  Ric.  Farmer,  S.T.P. 

"1281. — About  this  time  John  Dennis,  mayor 
of  Sandwich,  Solomon  Loveryke,  and  others  were 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  321 

ference,  took  into  his  own  hands  the  management  of  Sandwich  and  its 
revenues.  This  was  in  1290.  The  monks  received  in  exchange  certain 
lands  of  the  queen  and  surrendered  "  all  their  rights  at  Sandwich,  ex- 
cepting their  houses  and  keys,  with  a  free  passage  in  the  haven  in  the 
small  boat  called  the  oere  boat,  and  free  liberty  for  their  tenants  to 
sell  and  purchase."  In  thus  escaping  from  the  hands  of  the  monks  at 
a  time  when  the  monks  were  beginning  to  become  a  drag.  Sandwich 
was  exceptionally  lucky,  and,  as  if  in  consequence,  its  ship  services 
enormously  increased.  For  some  time  afterwards  it  practically  supplied 
the  main  part  of  the  ships  that  incessantly  ravaged  the  French  coast. 
According  to  Ireland — whose  authority,  however,  I  have  not  been  able 
to  discover — "  when  it  was  required,  the  mayors,  on  receiving  the  king's 
letters,  furnished  at  the  charge  of  the  town  fifteen  sail  of  armed  ships 
of  war,  manned  by  1500  men."  Ireland,  whether  as  the  writer  of  'Vorti- 
gern '  or  as  a  topographical  historian,  is  to  be  regarded  with  suspicion  ; 
but  it  is  more  or  less  certain  that  Sandwich  did  contrive  very  seriously 
to  annoy  the  French  from  the  years  1293-94  onwards.  .  According  to 
Swinden,^  the  quarrel  arose  because  "  the  mariners  of  Flanders  insulted 
the  mariners  of  Bayonne,  because  they  had  killed  some  of  their  men, 
and  the  men  of  Bayonne  begged  help  of  the  seamen  of  Yarmouth  and 
the  Cinque  Ports,  who  .  .  .  slew  400  of  the  Flandrians,  sunk  some  of 
their  ships  and  burnt  others,  which  was  the  cause  of  their  arresting  and 
casting  into  prison  of  fourscore  merchants  of  Bayonne  in  Bruges  and 
confiscating  all  their  precious  goods  and  very  rich  wares  by  order  of  the 
Earl  of  Flanders."    This  was  the  cause  of  quarrel  with  the  Flemings,  from 


attached  by  Robert  de  Stokho,  sheriff  of  Kent,  mayor  in  those  things  which  concern  the  com- 

to  answer  to  a  plea  of  trespass,  for  assaulting  monalty  being  deemed    to  be  the  act  of  the 

the  sheriff's  bailiff  upon  execution  of  the  king's  whole  body,  the  corporation  is  deprived  of  its 

writ  within   Stonore.     Some  plead  to  the  juris-  privileges."— Boys,  '  Hist,  of  Sandwich.'  ^ 

diction  and  refuse  to  answer  except  in  the  court  >  Swinden's  '  Hist,  of  Great  Yarmouth,'  p.  9221 

of  Shipway,  but  all  of  them  fail  in  their  defence  note, 
and  are  committed  to  gaol,  and  the  act  of  the 


322  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

whom  it  naturally  spread  to  the  Spaniards.  In  1294,  says  Boys,  "they 
made  prize  likewise  of  twenty  Spanish  ships  laden  with  wine  which  they 
carried  into  Sandwich."  Of  the  genesis  of  the  quarrel  with  the  French 
I  have  already  given  account. 

In  1342  Edward  III.  crossed  the  Channel,  starting  from  Sandwich, 
and  going  to  the  relief  of  John  de  Montfort.  According  to  Boys,  he 
was  provided  with  both  soldiers  and  engines  of  war,  but  the  latter 
proved  too  large  for  the  ships  at  Sandwich.  From  Rymer's  '  Foedera ' 
we  learn  that  the  king  stayed  for  some  time  at  Sandwich.  From 
it  he  issues  briefs :  "  De  custode  Angliae,  absente  Rege,  constitute ; " 
"  Pro  dicto  custode ; "  "  Super  Magno  Sigillo  et  de  Passagio  Regis." 
In  1345  the  king  was  again  at  Sandwich,  with  his  queen,  Philippa,  "at 
which  place  Robert  de  Sadyngton,  the  chancellor,  waited  upon  him, 
and  in  the  queen's  apartment  delivered  to  his  majesty  his  great  seal, 
in  the  presence  of  Bartholomew  Burghmersh  and  John  D'Arcy  le  Fitz, 
and  dthers.  At  the  same  time  he  received  from  the  king  another  seal 
to  be  used  during  his  absence  from  the  kingdom ;  which  seal  the  chan- 
cellor took  with  him  to  London,  and  on  the  Tuesday  following  caused 
it  to  be  affixed  to  certain  charters,  letters  patent,  and  writs  at  West- 
minster. That  same  Sunday  the  king,  with  his  nobles  and  attendants, 
sailed  from  Sandwich  about  nine  o'clock  in  a  frigate  called  the  Swallow, 
and  proceeded  to  sea  with  his  fleet.  They  landed  at  Sluys,  and  the 
king  returned  to  Sandwich  on  the  26th  of  the  same  month.  This 
expedition  was  undertaken  with  a  view  to  obtaining  the  earldom  of 
Flanders  for  Prince  Edward  through  the  intrigues  of  James  D'Arteville, 
a  factious  brewer  of  Ghent,  but  the  design  was  frustrated  by  the  death 
of  D'Arteville,  who  was  murdered  by  the  populace  on  the  17th  of 
July." 

They  were  stirring  times  enough,  but  the  king  had  to  attend 
to  business  affairs  as  well  as  to  other  matters.  Thus  we  find  in 
Rymer's   'Fredera,'  quite  a  number  of  briefs   that  the  king  attested  in 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  323 

Sandwicum.^  His  presence  at  Sandwich  perhaps  opened  his  eyes  to  the 
desirability  of  finally  acquiring  the  remaining  rights  of  the  monks  over 
the  town.  As  if  in  gratitude  for  this,  the  townsmen  replied  with  their 
noblest  effort  in  the  matter  of  ship  service  next  year,  they  finding  twenty- 
two  ships.^  The  king  and  queen  crossed  to  Calais  in  a  Sandwich  ship. 
One  hopes  the  gentle  queen  had  a  fair  passage.  For  one  remembers  the 
words :  "  Then  the  quene  beynge  great  with  chylde,  kneled  downe,  &  sore 
wepyng,  sayd,  a  getyll  sir,  syth  I  passed  the  see  in  great  parell,  I  have 
desyred  nothyng  of  you ;  therfore  nowe  I  hubly  requyre  you,  in  y° 
honour  of  the  son  of  the  virgyn  Mary,  and  for  the  loue  of  me,  y'  ye 
woll  take  mercy  of  these  six  burgesses.  The  kyng  behelde  y'  quene, 
and  stode  styll  in  a  study  a  space,  and  the  sayd,  a  dame,  I  wold  ye  had 
ben  as  nowe  in  soe  other  place,  ye  make  suche  request  to  me  y*  I  can 
not  deny  you  ;  wherfore  I  gyue  them  to  you,  to  do  your  pleasure  with 
theym :  than  the  quene  caused  the  to  be  brought  Into  her  chambre, 
and  made  y*  halters  to  be  taken  fro  their  neckes,  &  caused  them  to  be 
newe  clothed,  &  gaue  them  their  dyner  at  their  leser ;  and  than  she 
gaue  ech  of  them  sixe  nobles,  &  made  the  to  be  brought  out  of  thoost 
in  sauegard,  &  set  at  their  lyberte.  .  .  .  Than  the  kyng  mounted  on  his 
horse,    &    entred    into    the    towne  with    trumpets,    tabours,    nakquayres. 


'  Among  the   matters   attested   at    Sandwich  "  Breve  quod  Homines  ad  Arma  et  Sagittarii 

this  year  one  finds  many  like  the  following  : —  se  festinent  versus  Regem.  .  .  . 

"Super  Expensis  in  Ambassiata  Hispaniaa  ;"  "Breve    pro    duabus    bargeis   faciendis,   et 

"  De    Impignoratione    Reginae    coronse  ;  "    "  De  Assessio  denariorum  ad  unam  bargeam. 

Impignoratione  magnse  coronse;"  "De  Custode  "Compotus  denariorum  receptorum  pro  fac- 

Angliae  constituto,"  and  so  on.    (' Fcedera,' vol.  S,  tura  ejusdem. 

T^.  X]\  et  seqq.)  "  Littera   Regis  ad  mittendam  dictam  bar- 

^  Among  the  briefs  of  the  period  in  the  '  Liber  geam  usque  Sandwicum. 

Albus '  of  the  City  of  London  I  find  the  follow-  "  Indentura    inter    Majorem   et   Marinarios 

•ng  :—  dictaa  bargeas. 

"  Breve  quod  Homines  ad  Arma  et  Sagittarii  "  Littera  Regis  pro  dicta  bargea  arraianda." 

sint  apud  Sandwicum.  These,   however,   are   the   only   references   to 

"  Breve  ad  arraiandos  homines  civitatis.  '  Sandwich  that  I  have  been  able  to  discover  in 

that  collection, 


324  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

and  hormyes,  and  there  the  kyng  lay  tyll  the  quene  was  brought  a 
bedde  of  a  fayre  lady  named  Margarete.  .  .  .  The  kynges  mynde  was 
when  he  cae  into  Englande  to  sende  out  of  London  a  xxxvi.  good 
burgesses  to  Calys  to  dwell  there,  and  to  do  somoche  that  the  towne 
myght  be  peopled  w*  pure  Englysshmen ;  the  which  entent  the  kynge 
fulfilled.  .  .  .  Methynke  it  was  great  pyte  of  the  burgesses  &  other 
men  of  the  towne  of  Calys,  and  women,  and  chyldren,  whane  they 
were  fayne  to  forsake  their  houses,  herytages,  and  goodes,  and  to  bere 
away  nothyng,  and  they  had  no  restorement  of  the  frenche  kyng,  for 
whose  sake  they  lost  all :  the  moost  part  of  them  went  to  saynt  Omers. 
.  .  .  Than  the  kyng  of  Englande  and  the  quene  retourned  into 
Englande."  ^ 

In  1349  the  king  again  set  sail  from  Sandwich,  and  shortly  after- 
wards took  place  the  great  sea-fight  of  L Espagnols  sur  Mer,  which  I 
have  already  mentioned.^  Eight  years  later,  John,  King  of  France, 
landed  a  prisoner  in  the  town  of  Sandwich. 

In  1359  Edward  III.  again  came  to  Sandwich,  where,  or  rather 
in  a  "  tenement "  at  Stonor,  he  remained  for  more  than  a  month.  This 
was  the  last  glory  of  Stonor,  which  had  long  since  sunk  to  the  condition 
of  a  member  of  Sandwich.  In  1365  the  town  was  entirely  destroyed 
by  the  sea.  Sandwich  itself  was  becoming  more  and  more  prosperous. 
In  1377  the  king,  as  a  crowning  favour,  removed  from  Queensborough 
the  wool  staple  and  placed  it  in  Sandwich.  The  value  of  this  market 
can  hardly  be  underrated.  I  have  already  given  a  sufficient  account 
of  the  illicit  sale  of  wool  in  the  district.  Sandwich  now  became  the 
chief  place  for  legal  traffic  in  the  staple  article  of  English  trade.  The 
dutiful  sale  of  wool  was  perhaps  not  so  large  as  the  illegal,  but  it  was 
large  enough  to  be  of  great  service  to  the  town  and  port  of  Sandwich. 

The  town  was,  in  fact,  becoming  too  prosperous,  and  in  the  hapless 

'  The  Chronycle  of  Froissart,  Lord  Bernei-'s  translation,  1812  edit.,  vol.  i.  p.  177. 
^  See  ante,  chap.  i. 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  325 

days  towards  the  end  of  the  century  the  first  warning  of  approaching 
desolation  occurred,  taking  the  form  of  a  new  triumph.  In  the  year 
1285  the  French  meditated  a  descent  on  the  place,  but,  says  Lam- 
barde,  "certain  French  ships  were  taken  at  the  sea,  whereof  some  were 
fraught  with  the  frame  of  a  timber  Castle  (such  another,  I  suppose, 
as  William  the  Conqueror  erected  at  Hastings,  so  soone  as  he  was 
arrived),  which  they  also  meant  to  have  planted  in  some  place  of 
this  Realm,  for  our  anoyance  :  but  they  failed  of  their  purpose ;  for  the 
Engine  being  taken  from  them,  it  was  set  up  at  this  Town,  &  used  to 
our  great  safetie,  and  their  repulse."^ 

This  threat,  however,  was  speedily  forgotten  during  the  magni- 
ficently warlike  reign  of  Henry  V.  But  a  sidelight  shows  us  that  great 
though  the  glory  that  was  won  by  the  men  who  fought  at  Agincourt, 
they  gained  little  more.  A  story  like  the  following  is  pitiful  enough. 
One  reads  in  the  'Gesta  Henrici  V.'  that,  after  the  great  battle  of 
141 5,  the  "tired  &  weary  archers"  "who  had  contributed  to  that  great 
victory,  having  been  denied  admittance  to  Calais,  from  the  fear  that 
they  might  eat  up  the  scanty  supply  of  provisions,  were  sent  over  by 
King  Henry  in  pitiful  plight  to  Sandwich  &  Dover,  where  they  were 
glad  to  barter  their  booty  on  any  terms  for  bread."  ^  Henry  V.  was 
a  frequent  visitor  of  the  town ;  but  its  bad  days  came  during  the 
wretched  reign  of  his  wretched  son.  By  the  year  1434  the  necessity 
for  walls  round  the  town  became  very  apparent,  but  before  these  could 
be  erected  the  French  made  an  inroad,  and,  it  is  said,  completely  gutted 
the  town.     I  have  not  been  able  to  find  any  minute  account  of  this  trans- 


'  Boys  quotes  '  Chron.  Tinemutensis '  as  fol-  cum   gunnis   cum    multo    pulvere.      Erecta    est 

lows: — "Anno   1385.     Sub  eisdem   diebus   nos-  proinde    pars    muri    lignei    apud    sandwic,    et 

trates  coeperunt  duas  magnas  naves  regis  Fran-  factum  est  ut  quem  hostes  contra  nos  prsepon- 

ciae  in  quibus,  et  pars  muri  lignei,  quem  idem  averant,  nos  ereximus  contrabustes." 

rex  ponari  fecerat  ad  erigendum  in  Anglia  et  2  paper  read  by  Canon  Jenkins  before  a  meet- 

magister  totius  fabricas,  qui   anglus  erat   inter-  ing  of  the  Kent  Arch.  Soc,  '  Arch.  Cant.,'  vol.  vi. 

ceptus  est  cum  machinis  ad  petras  jactandas,  p.  11. 


326  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

action.  Boys  says  very  little  about  it,  nor  do  the  town  records,  which 
now  become  available,  contain  any  allusion.  It  is  possible  that  the 
incursion  had  no  purpose  more  serious  than  the  prevention  of  the  walling 
of  the  town,  which  nevertheless  went  on  slowly. 

There  followed  in  1437  a  famine,  during  which  bread  was  made 
of  vetches,  peas,  and  fern-roots.  Nevertheless  a  costelet  (15  gallons) 
of  good  beer  continued  to  be  sold  for  2  2d.  ;  a  gallon  fetching  2d.  In 
1457  the  French  made  their  final  and  most  disastrous  attack  on  the 
town.  They  were  led  by  the  Mardchal  de  Brdz6,  Seneschal  of  Poitou, 
whom  the  English  called  Peter  Brice.  Says  Hall :  "  This  lusty  Capital, 
saylyng  all  the  cost  of  Susseix  &  Kent,  durst  not  once  take  land  till 
he  arrived  in  the  downes,  &  there  hauyng  by  a  certayn  espial  perfit 
notice,  that  the  towne  of  Sandwyche  was  neither  peopled  nor  fortefied, 
because  that  a  litle  before,  the  chefe  rulers  of  the  towne,  were  from 
thece  departed,  for  to  auoyde  the  pestilenciall  plage,  which  sore  there 
infected  and  slew  the  people,  entered  the  hauen,  spoyled  the  towne, 
&  after  such  pore  stuffe  as  he  ther  founde,  ryffled  and  taken,  he  fear- 
inge  an  assemble  of  the  cotrey,  shortly  returned."^  Boys,  however, 
states  that  De  Breze  did  not  get  possession  of  the  town  until  after  a 
bloody  contest. 

The  next  year  was  spent  by  the  townsmen  in  recovering  from  the 
effects  of  the  calamity.  We  hear  that  "  a  bulwark  of  brick  is  to  be  built 
at  Fisher's  Gate,"  and  access  is  made  "for  repaire  of  the  towne." 

Sandwich  was  fated  to  see  the  very  opening  of  the  Wars  of  the 
Roses,  for  in  the  year  1460  the  Earls  of  March,  Salisbury,  and 
Warwick— the   future  king  and  the  future  king-maker— landed  at   Sand- 

>  Hall's    Chronicle,    1809  ed.,  p.   235.     Boys  at    Sundwich,   &  brent  &   spoyled    the    towne 

seems  to  imply  that  Hall  gives  an  account  of  a  without  al  mercy."     Lambarde   also   places   the 

second  and  more  serious  attack  in  the  following  descent  in  the  year  1456.     Mr  Burrows  assigns 

year.     I  have  not,  however,  been  able  to  verify  to  the  catastrophe  the  year  1457,  but  I  do  not 

his  quotation.     Grafton  says  under  1456,  "And  know  his  authority  for  the  statement, 
at  this  time  landed  a  gret  many  of  French  men 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  327 

wich  with  1500  men.  A  year  before  the  three  earls  had  fled  to  Calais. 
Then  as  ever,  the  Portsmen  were  loyal  to  the  last  of  the  Barons,  and 
they  raised  for  him  a  force  of  40,000  men  of  Kent,  with  whom  the 
three  earls  entered  London  on  July  2.  Sandwich  saw,  moreover,  what 
was  the  last  struggle  of  the  wars  when  in  147 1,  after  the  final  battle 
of  Tewkesbury,  "the  bastard  Fauconberg,"  with  a  few  desperate  fol- 
lowers, seized  on  Sandwich  and  fortified  themselves  there.  On  the 
approach  of  an  overwhelming  body  of  the  king's  men  they  surrendered. 
Their  lives  were  guaranteed  them,  but  Fauconberg  was,  nevertheless, 
executed  soon  afterwards. 

In  1492  that  amusing  pretender,  Perkin  Warbeck,  attempted  to  land 
at  Deal.  He  was,  however,  ignominiously  beaten  off  by  the  Sandwich 
trained  bands,  a  fact  of  which  the  town  was  never  tired  of  boasting. 
In  their  petition  to  the  -Lord  Protector  Somerset  in  1548  they  say, 
"  What  tyme  the  tray  tor  Pyrkyn  Warbeck  arryved,  and  that  with  no 
small  company,  at  the  place  where  nowe  the  castell  called  Sandowne 
is  placyd,  they  of  their  owne  powers  repelled  him  and  in  persuit  tooke, 
besides  a  great  nombre  which  they  slewe,  above  the  nombre  of  xxii 
score  persones." 

A  worse  trouble,  however,  than  foreign  invasions  or  civil  strife 
began  to  sap  the  energies  of  the  town  —  the  decay  of  the  harbour. 
This,  as  in  the  case  of  Winchelsea,  was  doubtless  inevitable  enough,  in 
the  course  of  nature.  But,  as  in  the  case  of  Winchelsea  and  Rye,  the 
process  was  hastened  by  the  greed  for  land.  At  Sandwich  the  towns- 
men do  not  seem  to  have  been  the  guilty  parties.  In  the  petition  which 
I  have  just  quoted  (it  was,  of  course,  a  petition  for  State  aid  in  the  opening 
of  the  haven)  they  say  :  "All  which  said  severall  commodities  contynually 
grewe  and  remayned  until  such  time  as  by  the  moste  greedye  and  insatiable 
covetousnesse  of  one  cardinall,  Moreton,  sometyme  byshop  of  Canterberry, 
who,  having  moost  part  of  the  lands  envyroning  the  said  haven,  appro- 
priated to  his  archbishoprick,  for  his  singler  advantage  and  private  com- 


328  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

moditie,  stoppet  up,  muryd,  and  infitted  in  such  sorte  the  saide  haven  at 
a  place  called  Sarre,  that  by  meane  thereof  and  also  by  like  evill  doing 
of  other  the  land  pyers  next  adjoining  unto  the  saide  haven,  the  same 
haven  is  at  this  present  utterlye  destroyd  and  lost,  so  that,  as  well  as 
the  navye  and  maryners  of  the  said  towne,  the  howses  now  inhabited 
excede  not  above  the  nombre  of  ii.  c." 

At  Sarre,  one  learns  elsewhere,  a  bridge  was  substituted  for  a  ferry 
in  the  year  1485,  just  as  at  Winchelsea.  The  ferry  there  was  converted 
into  the  present  Ferry  Bridge  at  much  the  same  time. 

In  the  meanwhile  Henry  VIII.  had  erected  three  castles  at  San- 
down,  Deal,  and  Walmer.  It  is  significant  of  the  decay  into  which 
the  poor  port  of  Sandwich  had  fallen  that  he  did  not  think  it  worth 
any  fortifying.  I  have  given  a  sufficiently  detailed  account  of  the 
building  of  Sandgate  Castle  to  render  description  of  these  fortresses 
more  or  less  unnecessary.  They  saw  service  later  on,  did  their  part  in 
the  making  of  history,  but  had  no  warlike  haps  or  mishaps  until  they 
had  stood  for  a  matter  of  eleven  decades.  Leland,  however,  early 
chants  their  praises  in  the  '  Cygnea  Cantione ' : — 

"Jactat  Dela  novas  Celebris  areas 
Votus  Caesareis  locus  Trophseis." 

Thus  the  character  of  Sandwich  was  slowly  altering.  The  town 
did  not  accept  the  silting  up  of  its  harbour  without  a  struggle.  Like 
the  other  ports — like  Folkestone  and  like  Faversham — it  set  its  shovel- 
men  to  work  in  gangs,  with  a  clerk  over  every  ten  of  them  ;  but  even 
this  was  insufficient.  Finally  they  set  to  work  to  make  a  new  cut 
out  towards  Sandown ;  but  this  failed  for  want  of  funds.  They  con- 
sulted one  "  Henrique  Jacobson  of  Amsterdame  in  Hollande,  beino-  a 
man  very  experte   in    suche   greete  water-workis."     This  was   in    1559.^ 

'  The  following  are  some  of  the  "  items "  from  '  Item.    Tochinge  the  commoditie  that  shall 

the  town's  petition  of  1559  :—  growe  by  the  parfitinge  of  this  newe  cutte,  yt  ap- 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  329 

Finally  hope  flared  up  again.  Elizabeth  herself  deigned  to  visit 
her  faithful  barons  of  Sandwich.  This  was  a  matter  of  thirteen  years 
later.  The  Sandwich  description  of  her  visit  is  so  quaint,  so  affecting 
in  its  easy  sincerity,  one  sees  it  so  well,  that  I  quote  it  in  extenso  as 
the  best  specimen  of  description  of  any  royal  visit  to  any  of  the 
ports. 

The  queen  arrives  at  Sandwich  on  Monday,  31st  of  August,  about 
seven  in  the  evening,  "at  whiche  tyme  John  Gylbart  maior  accompanied 
with  ix.  jurats,  the  town  clarke  and  some  of  the  comen  counsell  receaved 
her  highnes  at  Sandowne  at  the  uttermost  ende  thereof,  the  said  maior 
beinge  appareled  in  a  scarlet  gowne,  at  which  place  her  maiestie  stayed. 
And  there  the  said  maior  yelden  up  to  her  maiestie  his  mace.  And  not 
far  from  them  stoode  thre  hundreth  persons  or  thereabouts  apparralled 
in  whyte  doblets  with  blacke  and  whyte  rybon  in  the  sieves,  black  gas9oyne 
hose  and  whyte  garters,  euery  of  them  having  a  muryon  and  a  calyver  or 
di.  musket,  having  thre  dromes  and  thre  ensignes  and  thre  capitans — viz., 
Mr  Alexander  Cobbe,  Mr  Edward  Peake,  and  Mr  Edward  Wood,  jurats ; 
euery  of  theis  dischardged  their  shott,  her  maiestie  standinge  and  re- 
ceavinge  of  the  mace  the  great  ordynance  was  dischardged,  which  was 
to  the  nomber  of  one  hundreth  or  cxx ;  and  that  in  such  good  order  as 
the  quene  and  noble  men  gave  great  comendacion  thereof,  and  said,  that 


peareth  that,  yf  the  quenes  majestic  or  her  high-  havon   to   the    said   towne    of    Sandwich  ;    and 

nes  successours   sholde   have  warres   with    her  besides  that  shall  cause  all  the  marshe  landes 

majesties  aunsiente  enymies  the  frenchemen,  the  lyenge  in  the  valies  which  nowe  are  under  water 

same  shold  be  verye  good  and  commodious  har-  to  yssewe  the    better  and   be  kept  drie  at  all 

brough  for  all  her  highnes  ships,  so  that  at  all  times. 

tymes  her  grace  and  her  majesties  successours  "  Item.     We  fynde  uppon  the  report  of  Hen- 

shalbe  as  prone  upon  the  suddeyne  tynvade  the  rique  Jacobson    of   Amsterdame    in   HoUande, 

said  enymies  as  they  reddye  tyncroche  her  high-  beinge  a  man  very  experte  in  suche  greate  water 

ness  or  her  realme  ;  and  besydes  that  a  triplex  workes,  that  the  charge  hereof  will  amount  unto 

commoditie  will  growe  to  her  majestie  in  cus-  ten   thowsande   poundes  or  thereabouts,  as  by 

tome,  as  by  thauncyent  records  appearethe.  his  proporcyon  made  in  writinge  more  at  large 

"Item.    We  fynde  that  the  perfection  of  the  is  shewed." 
same  cut  is  thonly  remedy  and  makinge  of  a  good 


330  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

Sandwich  should  have  the  honor  as  well   for  the  good  order  thereof  as 
also  of  their  small  shott. 

"  Then  her  maiestie  went  towards  the  town,  and  at  Sandowne  gate 
were  a  lyon  and  a  dragon  all  gilt  set  up  uppon  ii  posts  at  the  bridge  ende, 
and  her  armes  were  hanged  up  uppon  the  gate.  All  the  towne  was 
graveled  and  strewed  with  rushes,  herbs,  flags  and  such  lyke,  euery  howse 
havinge  a  nomber  of  grene  bowes  standing  against  the  dores  and  walls, 
every  house  paynted  whyte  and  black.  Her  maiestie  rode  into  the 
towne,  and  in  dyvers  places  as  far  as  her  lodginge  were  dyvers  cords 
made  of  vine  branches  with  their  leaves  hanking  crosse  the  streats ;  and 
uppon  them  dyvers  garlands  of  fyne  flowers.  And  so  she  rode  forth 
till  she  came  directly  over  against  Mr  Cripps  bowses  almost  as  far  as 
the  pellicane,  where  stood  a  fyne  howse  newly  buylt  and  vaulted,  over 
whereon  her  armes  was  sett  and  hanked  with  tapestrye.  In  the  same 
stode  Rychard  Spycer,  minister  of  St  Clements  parishe,  a  Mr  of  art, 
the  townes  orator,  apparalled  in  a  blacke  gown  and  a  hoode  both  lyned 
and  faced  with  black  taffatye  being  the  guyste  of  the  towne,  accompanied 
with  the  other  ii  ministers  and  the  sadle  master.  He  made  unto  her 
highnes  an  oration  which  followeth,  which  she  so  well  lyked  as  she  gaue 
thereof  a  singular  commendacion,  sayenge  it  was  both  very  well  handeled 
and  very  elloquent.  Then  he  presented  her  with  a  cup  of  gold  x  of 
a  CI,  which  Thomas  Gylbart  sonne  to  the  maior  aforesaid  receaved  from 
Mr  Spycer,  and  he  gave  yt  to  the  footemen  ;  of  whome  her  maiestie 
receaved  yt,  and  so  delyvered  yt  to  Mr  Rausse  Lane  one  of  the  gent, 
equirries,  who  carried  yt.  And  then  the  said  Mr  Spycer  presented 
her  with  a  new  testament  in  greeke,  which  she  thankefully  accepted.  And 
so  rode  untill  she  came  unto  Mr  Manwood's  howse  wherin  she  lodged, 
a  howse  wherein  Kinge  Henry  the  VHIth  had  ben  lodged  twyes  before. 
And  here  is  to  be  noted  that  uppon  euery  post  and  corner  from  her 
first  entrye  to  her  lodginge  wer  fixed  certen  verses,  and  against  the 
court  gate  all  thoes  verses  put  into  a  table  and  there  hanged  up. 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  331 

"The  nexte  daye  beinge  twysdaye  and  the  first  of  September,  the 
towne  havinge  buylded  a  forte  at  Stoner  on  thother  syde  of  the 
havon,  the  capitanes  aforesaid  led  over  their  men  to  assault  the  said 
forte;  during  which  tyme  certen  wallounds  that  could  well  swym  had 
prepared  two  boats,  and  in  thende  of  eche  boat  a  borde  uppon  which 
bords  stode  a  man,  and  so  met  together  with  either  of  them  a  staffe  and 
a  sheld  of  woodd,  and  one  of  them  did  overthrowe  an  other ;  at  which 
the  quene  had  good  sport.  And  that  don  the  capitans  put  their  men 
into  a  battayle,  and  takeng  with  them  some  lose  shott,  gave  the  scarmerche 
to  the  forte,  and  in  the  ende,  after  the  dischardge  of  ii  fawkenets  and 
certen  chambers,  after  dyvers  assaults  the  forte  was  wonne. 

"The  next  daye — viz.,  the  wednesdaye,  the  second  of  September 
— Mrs  Mayres  and  her  sisters  the  jurats  wyves  made  the  quene's 
majestie  a  banket  of  clx  dishes  on  a  table  of  xxviii  foote  long  in  the 
scole  howse ;  and  so  her  majestie  came  thether  thorough  Mrs  Man- 
wood's  garden  and  thorough  Mr  Wood's  also,  the  ways  beinge  hanked 
with  black  and  whyte  hayes  ;  and  in  the  scole  howse  garden  Mr  Ise- 
brand  made  unto  her  an  oration,  and  presented  to  her  highnes  a 
cupp  of  silver  and  guylt  with  a  cover  to  the  same  well  nere  a  cubit 
highe,  to  whome  her  majestie  answered  this,  '  Gaudeo  me  in  hoc 
natum  esse  ut  vobis  et  ecclesie  Dei  prosim,'  and  so  entered  into  the 
scole  howse,  wheare  she  was  very  merrye,  and  did  eate  of  dyvers 
dishes  withowt  any  assaye,  and  caused  certen  to  be  reserved  for  her 
and  carried  to  her  lodginge. 

"  The  next  daye,  being  thursdaye  and  the  daye  of  her  departinge, 
against  the  scole  howse  uppon  the  new  turfed  wall  and  upon  a  scaffold 
made  uppon  the  wall  of  the  scole  howse  yarde  were  dyvers  children 
englishe  and  dutche  to  the  nomber  of  c""  or  vi  score,  all  spynning  of 
fyne  bay  yarne,  a  thing  well  lyked  both  of  her  majestie  and  of  the 
nobilletie  and  ladies.  And  without  the  gate  stode  all  the  soldiers  with  their 
small  shott,  and  uppon  the  wall  at  the  butts  stode  certen  great  peces,  but 


332  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

the  chambers  by  meane  of  the  wetnes  of  the  morninge  could  not  be 
dischardged.  The  great  peces  were  shott  of  and  the  small  shott  dis- 
chardged  thryes.  And  at  her  departinge  Mr  Maior  exhibited  unto  her 
highnes  a  supplicacion  for  the  havon,  which  she  tooke  and  promised 
herself  to  reade. 

"My  lord  threasurer,  my  lord  admyrall,  my  lord  chamberleyn 
and  my  lord  of  Leycester,  were  made  pryvie  to  the  suyt  for  the  havon ; 
they  lyked  well  thereof  and  promised  their  furtherance." 

Neither  my  lord  treasurer,  my  lord  admiral,  nor  any  of  my  other 
lords  ultimately  forwarded  the  cause  of  the  haven,  though  they  all, 
and  Diva  Nostra,  really  liked  well  of  it.  It  was,  however,  a  matter 
of  ^10,000 — a  serious  sum  in  the  days  of  a  queen  who  was  a  miracle 
of  effectual  parsimony.  Thus  the  matter  was  allowed  to  remain  in 
abeyance — to  remain  for  ever  in  abeyance. 

In  the  meanwhile  a  fresh  source  of  prosperity  to  the  town  had, 
like  the  dayspring  from  on  high,  visited  it.  These  were  the  strangers 
—  the  Walloons  —  the  Dutch,  as  they  were  indiscriminately  called. 
From  a  more  or  less  careful  inspection  of  the  names  given  in  Boys' 
list  of  the  Walloon  families,  I  think  I  can  even  recognise  that  a  certain 
number  of  Munster  men  were  among  them.  These  must  certainly  have 
been  Anabaptists,  followers  of  the  prophet  John,  whose  bones  may  still 
be  seen  in  the  Westphalian  capital.  They  perhaps  filled  the  streets  of 
Sandwich  with  quaint  black  figures  ;  one  reads  again  and  again  of  the 
colours  black  and  white,  of  the  black  bay  cloth.  They  comported  them- 
selves, perhaps,  like  the  Anabaptists  of  Jonson's  'Alchemist,'  snuffled 
through  their  noses,  and  so  on.  But  they  had  the  secret  of  a  better 
alchemy — their  black  bay  cloth,  the  yarn  for  which  the  sweet  school 
children  spun  on  the  school  wall  that  Thursday  of  September. 

In  spite  of  the  preponderance  of  its  Dutch,  Sandwich  was  loyal 
enough  to  England — hated  the  Spaniards  more  than  any  place  among 
the   ports.      During    Armada    year    it    supplied    a    ship    of  its    own,    the 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  333 

Reuben,  which  it  hired  for  the  very  considerable  sum  of  ^20  a  month  ; 
and  later,  during  the  invasion  scare  of  1595,  it  found  one  ship  of  160 
tons  for  five  months'  service.  It  hated  the  Spaniards  very  well,  this 
Puritan  town — at  one  time  it  even  laid  violent  hands  upon  the  goods 
of  the  Spanish  ambassador,  who  had  been  so  foolish  as  to  trust  him- 
self in  the  town.  Says  Sir  William  Monson  :  "  The  men  of  Sandwich 
thought  to  put  an  affront  on  the  Spanish  ambassador,  then  [in  Sep- 
tember 1605]  staying  at  Sandwich,  by  making  seizure  of  a  fardel  of 
bays  of  the  value  of  ten  or  twelve  pounds,  which  belonged  to  one  of 
the  ambassadour's  servants  .  .  .  The  ambassadour  took  this  for  such 
a  disgrace,  knowing  it,  as  he  said,  to  be  a  practice  of  the  offspring  of 
the  Hollanders  within  the  town,  that  he  resolved  not  to  depart  thence 
till  he  was  righted  by  his  majesty's  order."  ^ 

The  Stuarts  themselves  were  from  the  first  unpopular  in  the  place. 
Sir  W.  Monson  writes  again :  "  Thousands  beholding  me  from  the 
shore,  cursed  both  me  and  His  Majesty's  ships."  The  officials  of  the 
Ports  write  of  the  violence  and  disorder  of  the  commons  of  Sandwich. 
But  this  is  mere  calumny.  The  town  was  stiff  and  unbending,  but 
disorderly  it  certainly  was  not,  if  austerity  of  government  had  any 
power  in  the  place.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  town  heralded  the 
growth  of  Puritanism  in  England.  The  place  was  swept  too  clean  for 
the  flourishing  of  any  "  leaudnesse,  as  swearing,  drunkenness,  and 
Sabbath-breaking,"  and  their  regulations  for  the  orderly  conducting 
of  what  is  to-day  euphemistically  called  "the  slave  traffic,"  might  serve 
as  a  model  for  any    modern  town.       Laud   himself^    tried    his    hand   at 

'  Quoted  by  Boys  from  '  Churchill's  Voyages.'  a  writ  regulating  emigration  is  sent  down  to 
^  Boys  in  his 'Annals' has  a  number  of  sugges-  the  town.  In  1636  "the  Mayor  committed  to 
live  jottings  concerning  these  years  of  storm  and  Dover  Castle,  for  disobeying  the  order  respect- 
stress.  Thus,  in  1625,  the  writ  for  ship-money  ing  Ship-Money."  h  m\t  oi  habeas  corpora  ivom 
is  contemptuously  answered  in  the  negative.  In  the  Common  Pleas  is  not  executed,  "in  respect 
1628  a  recital  of  the  grievances  of  the  ports  such  writs  from  London  have  not  been  known 
is  drawn  up  "under  twenty  heads."  In  1634,  to  lie  in  the  Ports." 
immediately  after'  the   sailing  of  the  Hercules, 


334  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

reducing  the  town  to  conformity,  but,  significantly  enough,  met  there 
with  his  most  pronounced  failure.  Thus  in  1634,  the  year  after  that 
which  succeeded  Laud's  elevation  to  the  Archbishopric,  there  set  sail 
from  Sandwich  numbers  and  numbers  of  Puritan  recusants.  They 
came  principally  from  Sandwich,  but  several  from  Ashford,  from  Ten- 
terden,  from  London.  Some  of  the  townsmen  had  even  before  then 
started  for  the  New  World,  for  we  read,  "  Margaret,  wife  of  William 
Johnes,  late  of  Sandwich,  now  of  New  England,  painter."  And  so,  in 
the  good  ship  Hercules  of  Sandwich,  of  the  burthen  of  200  tons,  John 
Wetherly,  master,  they  set  sail  for  the  plantation  called  New  England 
— for  the  New  Hesperides,  let  us  hope.  Their  departure  was  fol- 
lowed by  disastrous  plagues,  lasting  for  two  whole  years. 

I  have  treated  so  minutely  of  the  fortunes  of  the  town,  that  I  have 
but  little  space  to  mention  those  of  other  places  within  its  liberties. 
There  is  not  much  to  be  added,  however,  of  Reculvers,  Stonor,  or  Sarre  ; 
and  Ramsgate  remained  for  long  and  long  in  the  womb  of  the  future. 
Brightlingsea,  in  Essex,  still  remains  a  member  of  the  Port  of  Sand- 
wich, and,  unless  alterations  have  very  lately  been  made,  the  Kentish 
town  still  elects  its  deputy  there.  During  the  Great  Rebellion,  and  for 
some  time  afterwards,  the  western  parts  of  the  liberty  came  into  pro- 
minence. This  was  owing  to  the  three  castles  of  Henry  VI IL 
Later  on,  the  position  of  Deal  made  it  a  place  of  primary  naval 
importance.  So  early,  however,  as  the  reign  of  James  L,  a  royal  naval 
yard  had  already  been  established  there — a  yard  which  was  not  finally 
abolished  until  the  unpleasant  sixties  of  the  present  century. 

At  quite  an  early  stage  of  the  Great  Rebellion  the  castles  of 
Sandown,  Deal,  and  Walmer  fell  into  Parliamentary  hands.  When  or 
how  this  took  place  is  quite  uncertain,  but  it  may  possibly  have  been 
shortly  after  Drake  surprised  Dover  Castle.  Kent,  and  more  parti- 
cularly the  parts  of  Kent  bordering  on  the  Port  of  Sandwich,  was  the 
scene  of  one  of  the  last  attempts  of  the   Royalists.      This  uprising,  not 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  335 

vastly  formidable  on  land,  was  rendered  dangerous  enough  by  the 
attempts  made  by  the  Royalist  princes  to  subvert  the  Parliamentary 
fleet.  The  struggle  lasted  for  some  little  time,  but  the  fighting  was 
rather  desultory.  The  whole  thing  began  in  Canterbury,  where  the 
good  people  found  it  impossible  to  comply  with  the  Christmas  ordi- 
nances— impossible  to  do  without  their  mince-pies.  They  first  showed 
their  contumeliousness  on  Christmas  Day,  1647,  went  on  to  petition 
that  the  king  might  be  reinstated  in  his  rights,^  and  finally  assembled  to 
the  number — so  it  is  said— of  10,000.  The  greater  part  of  these 
marched  to  Blackheath,  but  a  smaller  band,  which  assembled  on  Bar- 
ham  Downs,  took  in  hand  the  reducing  of  Dover,  Deal,  and  Sandwich. 
A  small  detachment  of  these — 140  in  number,  according  to  the  Royalist 
account — speedily  took  possession  of  Sandwich,  which  made  no  objec- 
tion. They  then  proceeded  to  send  on  board  every  ship  in  the  Downs 
a  copy  of  the  Kentish  petition.  Their  messenger  was  a  Parliamentary 
renegade,  who  had  been  by  turns  a  divine,  a  sea-captain,  a  major  in 
the  Parliamentary  army,  and  a  number  of  other  things.  This  man, 
whose  name  was  Kames,  proved  highly  successful  with  the  sailors. 
They  refused  to  receive  on  board  their  admiral,  and  boldly  declared 
that  "they  were  upon  a  different  design  than  those  they  knew  he 
would  lead  them  on."  He  was  forced  to  take  passage  to  London  in 
a  Dutch  fly-boat.  Sandown  Castle  in  the  meantime  had  declared 
in  favour  of  the  Royalists,  and  shortly  afterwards  Deal  and  Walmer 
surrendered  without  firing  a  shot.^ 

The     Royalists,     who    by     now    numbered     several    thousand,    sat 

>  This  was    on    the    nth    May   1648.      The  at    the    castle    of    Canterbury,    for    the    said 

petition  is  quoted  in  Matthew  Carter's   '  Expe-  County."      It    "humbly"  asked    for   the    rein- 

dition  of  Kent,'  and  was  entitled  "The  humble  stating  of  the  king,  the  disbanding  of  the  army. 

Petition    of  the   Knights,   Gentry,    Clergy,   and  the  remission  of  all  taxes,  "  particularly  of  the 

Commonalty    of    the    County    of    Kent,    sub-  heavy  burthen   of  excise,"  and   so  on,  and  so 

scribed  by  the  Grand  Jury,  on   the    nth   May  on. 

1648,   at  the  Sessions  of  the   Judges,  upon  a         '^  Civil  War  Tracts,  1648, 'The  declaration  of 

Special  Commission  of  Oyer  and  Terminer,  held  the  Navie,  &c.' 


336.  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

down  before  the  castle  of  Dover,  which  absolutely  refused  to  treat  with 
them.  The  Royalist  leaders,  Sir  Richard  Hardres  and  Colonels 
Hammond  and  Hatton,  then  went  aboard  the  vessels  in  the  Downs, 
where  they  were  "welcomed  on  board  with  universal  expressions  of 
great  gladness ;  the  seamen  declaring  with  one  voice  that  they  now 
only  lived,  having  a  long  time,  as  it  were,  lain  amazed  betwixt  life 
and  death,'  and  that  '  they  desired  rather  to  die  in  the  service  of  the 
king  than  to  live  again  in  that  of  the  Parliament.'"^  The  captains  of 
the  fleet  then  addressed  to  the  Parliament  a  "declaration,"  which  was 
practically  an  emphasised  version  of  the  Kentish  petition,  and  having 
taken  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  king,  set  out  to  find  the  Duke  of 
York,  who  was  in  Holland.  In  the  meanwhile,  within  two  days  of  their 
assembling,  the  Royalist  forces  at  Maidstone  were  defeated  with  heavy 
loss,  and  the  beginning  of  the  end  was  at  hand.  The  forces  before 
Dover  Castle  hauled  up  the  heavy  guns  from  the  beach  to  within 
range  of  the  castle.  They  "battered  down  the  old  walls  very  much 
.    .    .    but  storm  it  they  could  not." 

Then  we  hear  of  "a  great  fight  at  Waymor  Castle,  in  the  county  of 
Kent,  between  the  Parliament's  forces,  who  had  besieged  the  said  castle, 
and  the  forces  sent  over  by  His  Highness  the  Prince  of  Wales,  with 
the  manner  of  the  fight,  the  success  thereof,  and  the  number  that  was 
slain  on  both  sides."  This  was  on  July  5.  Walmer  fell  after  a  siege 
of  some  days — of  twelve  or  thirteen.  The  Parliamentary  forces  then 
set  about  the  reduction  of  the  castles  of  Deal  and  Sandown.  They  had 
to  contend  with  the  garrison  and  the  sea  forces  from  the  renegade 
ships,  which  numbered  ten.  "  The  sea  Royalists  fought  very  reso- 
lutely, their  great  ordnance  began  to  roar,  the  conflict  was  great,  and 
the  dispute  resolutely  maintained  by  both  parties,  till  at  last  the 
Royalists  run.      Our  men  pursues,  and,  had  it  not  been  for  the  shipping, 

1  '  Records  of  Walmer,'  by   the    Rev.  C.   S.   Elwin.      This  book  contains  a  very  minute  and 
painstaking  account  of  the  Kentish  Rising. 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  337 

which   plaid    so    fast   upon    us    with   their    ordnance,    we  had  taken   and 
killed  most  of  them."       This  was  during  a  sortie  of  the  Deal  garrison. 

We  next  hear  of  "  a  great  victory  obtained  by  His  Highnesse,  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  against  a  squadron  of  Rebels'  shipping,  on  Munday 
last,  with  the  particulars  of  the  fight,  200  killed,  500  prisoners,  two  of 
their  ships  sunk,  five  boarded,  40  pieces  of  ordnance  taken,  and  all 
their  arms  and  ammunition."  This  was  practically  the  only  service 
that  the  Royalist  fleet  performed,  although,  the  sea  was  almost  en- 
tirely in  the  hands  of  the  Prince,  who  might  easily  have  rescued  his 
father  at  Carisbrook.^ 

Shortly  afterwards  the  Earl  of  Warwick  and  Sir  George  Ayscue 
gathered  together  a  fleet  sufficient  to  resist  the  Royalist  squadron  ;  the 
Prince  retired  to  Holland,  where  he  proceeded  to  make  himself  un- 
popular with  the  sailors,  who  shortly  afterwards  returned  to  the  service 
of  the  Parliament.  This  was  practically  the  end  of  the  Kentish  rising. 
The  castles  of  Deal  and  Sandown  fell  again  into  Parliamentary  hands, 
were  repaired,  furnished  with  snaphance  muskets,  collars  of  bandoleers, 
burr-shot,  and  so  on,  and  so  on.  They  saw  little  more  service.  Whilst 
Van  Tromp  was  engaged  in  sweeping  the  British  off  the  sea  in  1652, 
Deal  and  Sandown  presented  a  sufficiently  warlike  front  to  prevent 
his  snapping  up  prizes  beneath  the  shelter  of  their  guns,  but  no  actual 
fighting  took  place  then  or  at  any  subsequent  period.  The  liberties  of 
Sandwich  are,  however,  to  some  extent  connected  with  Blake.  Many 
of  that  great  man's  letters  are  dated  "  Off  Sandwich  "  in  the  days  when— 

"  Brave  Blaque  doth  on  the  ocean  jump 
And  frisk  it  like  a  dragon, 
Pox  on  the  Danes,  the  Swedes,  and  Trump, 
So  fill  the  other  flaggon." 


1  I  have  got  the  greater  part  of  my  facts  from  and   remarkably  conflicting  in  their  statements 

George  III.'s  collection  of  tracts,  which  is  now  -some  emanating   from   the   Parliamentarians, 

in  the  British  Museum,  catalogued  as  E  699,  E  others  from  the  Royalists. 
671,  E  676,  &c.     They  are  excessively  numerous 


Y 


338  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

Whether  Blake  actually  did  as  Mercurius  Phreneticus  suggests, 
I  do  not  know,  but  he  certainly  gave  the  Dutch  a  moderately  handsome 
drubbing  in  the  Downs  in  1652.  It  is  rather  interesting  to  learn  that 
the  immediate  cause  of  the  outbreak  of  fighting  with  the  Dutch  was — 
according  to  one  account— the  fact  that  Van  Tromp  refused  to  dip  his 
flag  to  that  of  the  Lord  Warden  of  the  Cinque  Ports  at  Dover  Castle. 
Upon  his  refusal  the  castle  opened  fire  upon  him  and  he  sheered  off. 
The  battle  took  place  between  the  mouth  of  Sandwich  harbour  and  the 
Goodwin  Sands.  Most  of  the  pamphlets  declare  that  the  Dutch  had 
made  several  "bold  attempts  even  up  to  our  very  Cinque  Port  of 
Dover."  In  the  battle  itself  "the  General,  conceiving  that  this  might 
be  his  last  fight  before  he  sealed  with  his  precious  blood  all  his  precious 
services,  charged  twice  through  the  enemy's  fleet  with  the  Royal  Sovereign." 
Another  account  says,  "  The  Sovereign,  that  great  ship,  a  delicate  friget 
(I  think  the  whole  world  hath  not  the  like),  did  her  part.  She  sailed 
through  and  through  the  Holland  fleet,  and  played  hard  upon  them." 
The  English  did  not  "shunless  come  off,"  but  they  certainly  had  the 
better  of  it  and  drove  the  Dutch  back  to  their  ports.  Indeed  the  Dutch 
themselves  acknowledge  the  defeat  in  their  pamphlets.'  Says  one  of  the 
English  reports,  "  We  have  sunk  their  Rear-Admirall,  a  gallant  ship 
carrying  fifty  guns  and  their  great  ship  that  carryed  sixty-eight,  being  the 
greatest  that  was  ever  yet  set  forth  by  the  High  and  Mighty  States,  and 
the  first  time  that  she  was  engaged  in  service.  Our  men  boarded  her 
twice,  and  the  third  time  became  masters,  but  not  long  could  they  enjoy 
her,  for  she  had  received  many  shots  between  wind  and  water,  and 
suddenly  sank  with  six  of  our  men  aboard." 

In  1 65 1  the  Lord  Protector  was  at  Sandwich,  but  all  traces  of  his 

^  See  '  Zee-Praatjen,  ayt-gesproken    over  da  quoted  go.     The  most  reliable  account  of  the 

roemruchtige   Scheepsstryd   tusschend  den  Ad-  battle  will  be  found  in   Mr  Rawson  Gardiner's 

miraal  Tromp  ter  unerende,  den  Englischen  Ad.  book.    This  I  unfortunately  did  not  come  across 

Blake  terandre  zijde.'    Delft,  1652,  &c.     These  until  too  late  to  avail  myself  of  it. 
facts  may  be  relied  upon  as  far  as  the  authorities 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  339 

visit  seem  to  have  been  destroyed  by  the  subsequently  loyal  citizens. 
Sandown  saw  one  of  the  closing  scenes  of  the  great  drama,  the  death — 
one  may  call  it  the  murder — of  Colonel  Hutchinson,  who  died  a  prisoner 
in  that  fortress.  Hutchinson  is  one  of  the  finest,  the  most  sympathetic 
figures  of  a  period  that  definitely  moulded  the  character  of  the  English 
nation.  He  was  what  one  calls  a  "gentleman  and  a  scholar,"  tem- 
perate, sweet-tempered.  It  is  true  the  details  we  have  of  him  are 
from  the  pen  of  his  wife,  but  even  his  enemies  said  little  enough 
of  ill  of  him  —  little  enough  when  we  subtract  the  epithets  that 
they  invariably  applied  to  men  of  the  opposite  side.  One  knows 
him  as  a  man  of  uprightness,  of  moderation,  of  some,  but  not  too 
virulent,  austerity — as  a  man  as  much  opposed  to  the  encroachments 
of  Cromwell  as  to  those  of  Charles.  He  was,  in  fact,  a  Girondin 
of  the  Great  Rebellion.  When  the  days  of  the  Restoration  came, 
he  was  sitting  as  member  of  Parliament  for  Nottingham  town.  In 
the  Long  Parliament  he  had  represented  Nottingham  county.  Shortly 
after  the  accession  of  Charles  II.  he  was  arrested  and  thrown 
into  the  Tower,  from  which  he  was  conveyed  to  his  prison  at  San- 
down. Charles  is  said  to  have  feared  Hutchinson  as  desperately  as 
his  father  is  said  to  have  feared  Hampden.  Mrs  Hutchinson  says  that 
one  of  the  courtiers  who  had  interceded  for  him,  coming  to  her  one 
evening,  "had  been  so  freely  drinking  as  to  unlock  his  bosome.  He 
told  her  that  the  king  had  been  lately  among  them  where  he  was, 
and  had  told  them  that  they  had  saved  a  man,  meaning  Coll.  Hutchin- 
son, who  would  doe  the  same  thing  for  him  he  did  for  his  father."  To 
obviate  this  catastrophe  it  became  necessary  to  do  to  death  the  man 
whose  life  had  been  assured  to  him.  He  was  sent  by  boat  to  San- 
down Castle,  which  was  even  then  slipping  into  the  sea.  Says  Mrs 
Hutchinson  : — 

"When  he  came  to  the  castle,  he  found  it  a  lamentable  old  ruin'd 
place  allmost  a  mile  distant  from  the  towne,  the  roomes  all  out  of  repaire, 


340  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

not  weather-free,  no  kind  of  accomodation  either  for  lodging  or  diet, 
or  any  conveniency  of  life.  Before  he  came,  there  were  not  above 
halfe  a  dozen  souldiers  in  it,  and  a  poore  lieftenant  with  his  wife  and 
children,  and  two  or  three  cannoneers,  and  a  few  guns  allmost  dis- 
mounted, upon  rotten  carriages  ;  but  at  the  collonell's  comming  thither, 
a  company  of  foote  more  were  sent  from  Dover  to  helpe  guard  the 
place,  pittifull  weake  fellows,  halfe  sterv'd  and  eaten  up  with  vermine, 
whom  the  governor  of  Dover  cheated  of  halfe  their  pay,  and  the  other 
halfe  they  spent  in  drinke.  These  had  no  beds  but  a  nasty  court  of 
guard,  where  a  sutler  liv'd  within  a  partition  made  of  boards,  with  his 
wife  and  famely,  and  this  was  all  the  accomodation  the  collonell  had  for 
his  victualls,  which  was  bought  at  a  deare  rate  at  the  towne,  and  most 
horribly  drest  at  the  sutler's.  For  beds  he  was  forc'd  to  send  to  an 
inne  in  the  towne,  and  at  a  most  unconscionable  rate  hire  three,  for 
himselfe  and  his  man  and  Captain  Gregorie,  and  to  get  his  chamber 
glaz'd,  which  was  a  thorowfare  roome  that  had  five  doors  in  it,  and 
one  of  them  open'd  upon  a  platforme,  that  had  nothing  but  the  bleak 
ayre  of  the  sea,  which  every  tide  washt  the  foote  of  the  castle  walls  ; 
which  ayre  made  the  chamber  so  unwholsome  and  damp,  that  even  in 
the  summer  time  the  collonell's  hat-case  and  trunkes,  and  every  thing  of 
leather,  would  be  every  day  all  cover'd  over  with  mould ;  wipe  them 
as  cleane  as  you  could  one  morning,  by  the  next  they  would  mouldie 
againe,  and  though  the  walls  were  foure  yards  thick,  yet  it  rain'd  in 
through  cracks  in  them,  and  then  one  might  sweepe  a  peck  of  salt  peter 
off  of  them  every  day,  which  stood  in  a  perpetuall  sweate  upon  them."^ 

There  the  Colonel,  occupying  himself  with  making  a  commentary 
on  the  Bible,  and  with  arranging  sea-shells  into  ornamental  patterns, 
slowly  starved  and  rotted  away  to  his  death. 

Sandwich  still  had  its  royal  visitors.     Charles  II.  came  there,  and  in 

'  Mrs  Lucy  Hutchinson,  '  Memoirs  of  the   Life  of  Colonel  Hutchinson.'     London,  edit.   1808, 
pp.  431-432- 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  341 

1672  his  queen.  Both  these  visits,  as  well  as  some  naval  engagement, 
possibly  that  of  Sole  Bay  near  Southwold,  are  commemorated  by  pic- 
tures of  surprising  excellence,  which  in  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century  were  discovered  under  the  plastering  of  a  room  in  Sandwich. 
Who  the  artist  was  one  does  not  know.  That  he  was  Low  Country  is 
certain ;  that  he  was  a  pictor  ignotus  of  very  high  rank  is  certain  too. 
A  writer  in  the  '  Archseologia  Cantiana '  ascribes  them  to  William  Van 
de  Velde,  and  the  ascription  is  perhaps  not  far  wrong.  Such  as  they 
are,  however,  they  represent  the  finest  series  of  paintings  owned  by 
any  of  the  corporations  of  the  Five  Ports. 

In  1688  there  was  panic  in  the  town — panic  which  throws  a  suf- 
ficient sidelight  on  the  causes  of  the  fall  of  James  II.  The  Irish 
troops  of  that  monarch  were  said  to  be  everywhere  cutting  throats  and 
massacring.  "On  December  12,  being  Wednesday,  there  came  news 
that  the  Irish  soldiers  at  Chatham  had  slain  forty  or  fifty  families  of  that 
town."  On  the  Tuesday,  "there  being  about  twenty  small  smacks  in 
the  town,  there  went  off  a  boat  from  Deal  to  go  on  board  there ;  but 
they  would  not  suffer  the  boat  to  come  near,  therefore  it  was  supposed 
that  they  were  full  of  about  3000  Irish."  The  porters  and  seamen  of 
Sandwich  took  clubs  and  swords,  and  went  to  Mr  Mayor  for  direction, 
but  Mr  Mayor,  who  seems  to  have  been  the  only  sensible  man  in  the 
town,  told  them  to  go  home  to  bed.  On  Friday,  December  14,  the  sea- 
men set  about  searching  the  town,  "whereupon  some  which  made  the 
search  were  taken,  and  had  to  the  Hall  about  it.  Then  the  seamen  run 
blundering  into  the  Hall,  and  were  resolved  that  if  Mr  Mayor  sent  these 
to  prison  ...  he  should  send  them  all  to  prison.  Mr  Mayor  released 
them,  but  desired  them  not  to  rifle  any  one's  house,  or  spoill  them  of 
their  goods,  &c.,  but  to  live  peaceably  together  in  love  and  unity."  ^ 

Ut  was  during  these  days  that  James  II.  was  tically    cost    the    two    Stuart    sovereigns    their 

a  prisoner  at  Faversham.     The  extracts  above  thrones.     The  employment  of  these  "  wild  men  " 

quoted  serve  to  emphasise  how  fatal  was  James's  was  the  unspeakable  sin. 
alliance  with  the   Irish,  an  alliance   that   prac- 


342  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

In  the  following  year  the  descendants  of  the  men  who  had  beaten 
off  Perkin  Warbeck  fell  victims  to  a  much  less  specious  pretender,  one 
Cornelius  Evans,  who  "came  to  this  town  about  May  1689,  and  feigned 
himself  to  be  the  Prince  of  Wales :  gained  much  credit  among  the 
people,  was  nobly  entertained  for  a  while ;  afterwards  was  found  to  be 
an  impostor  and  secured,  but  afterwards  escaped."^  The  rest  of  the 
history  of  the  town  is  of  a  purely  local  nature.  It  remained  prosperous 
with  its  bay  manufactures,  to  which,  after  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict 
of  Nantes,  the  Huguenots  added  those  of  cambric  and  laces.  But  the 
course  of  history  followed  westward  the  course  of  Empire. 

In  the  last  year  of  the  seventeenth  century — the  penultimate  year 
according  to  some — 1699,  "  Gulielmus,  d.  G.  &c.  melioracionem  parochie 
et  ville  nostre  de  Deal  graciose  affectans,"  grants  the  town  its  charter 
of  incorporation.  Deal  had,  in  fact,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  become 
the  chief  town  of  the  great  harbour  called  the  Downs.  It  lay  in  the 
bottom  of  the  bay,  for  which  the  Goodwin  Sands,  dangerous  enough  in 
their  way,  afford  a  magnificent  shelter.  But  its  history  is  quite  different, 
if  not  in  species,  at  least  in  appearance,  from  that  of  Sandwich.  Instead 
of  the  cogs  and  crayers  and  whatnot  of  the  Cinque  Port,  instead  of  its 
Edwards  and  its  Henries,  we  have  to  think  of  the  great  and  stately 
three-deckers  ;  of  the  West  India  fleets — of  the  Jervises,  the  Collingwoods, 
and  the  Nelsons. 

Think,  by-the-bye,  of  the  old  Margate  hoy ;  at  any  rate,  let  it 
serve  as  a  transition  ship  between  those  of  Nelson  and  those  that 
steam  down  the  Thames  to-day.  It  is  not,  to  me,  a  vastly  congenial 
task  to  trace  the  evolution  of  the  bathing-places  that  have  succeeded  to 

'  This  is  Canon  Jenkins'  version  of  the  matter.  him  loo  h.  in  gold  and  Mr  Curling  a  good  geld- 

I  find,  however,  that  the  Sandwich  Records  of  ing,  &c."     One  doubts  whether  the  burgesses  of 

the  affair  place  it  in  the  year  1647.     "He  came  Sandwich  were  so  simple  as  not  to  have  heard, 

to  the  'Bell'  at  Whitsuntide  and  sent  for  the  M.  in  1689,  that  the  then  Prince  of  Wales  was  an 

and  J'",  and  made  them  believe  hee  was  Prince  infant-in-arms,  if  not  out  of  a  warming-pan. 
Charles.      Peter   Vandersteer   of    Stannar   gave 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  343 

the  prosperity  of  the  Five  Ports,  yet  perhaps  it  is  part  of  my  task, 
and  I  here  finally  essay  it  as  conscientiously  as  I  can.  The  towns 
round  the  Isle  of  Thanet  are  products  of  the  last  years  of  the 
eighteenth,  of  the  whole  of  the  nineteenth  century.  One  sees  no 
signs  of  their  decay ;  there  is  nothing  that  would  make  one  suspect 
that  they  ever  will  decay.  Yet  in  the  nature  of  things  this  must  be  so. 
In  the  prosperity  of  towns  like  the  Ports  we  have  evidence  of  the 
acquisitive  passions  of  a  young  nation  ;  in  that  of  towns  like  Ramsgate 
and  Margate,  evidence  of  the  passion  for  enjoyment  of  a  nation — not 
perhaps  on  the  eve  of  retirement,  but  at  that  stage  of  life  when  men  and 
nations  have  the  means  and  the  will  "to  take  a  day  off,"  as  they  say. 
For  many  centuries,  one  knows,  the  citizens  of  London  regarded  visits 
to  the  green  fields  as  things  in  the  nature  of  criminal  indulgences.  What 
we  call  Nature  was  for  them  —  as  for  their  betters,  who  called  turnip- 
fields  "  desarts  " — a  thing  non-existent.  For  them  a  journey  of  forty  miles 
was  a  dangerous  adventure.  The  great  nobles  travelled  in  their  coaches 
and  six,  had  their  escorts,  their  running  footmen. 

Then  came  the  days  of  Spas,  into  which  the  Quality  were  rung  by 
exhilarated  church-bells.  The  bourgeoisie  still  kept  its  nose  over  its 
ledgers.  There  came  a  time,  coeval  with  the  awakening  of  the  middle 
classes  across  the  Channel,  when  this  great  class  awoke.  They  did  not 
decapitate  their  king — they  had  set  that  example  a  century  and  a  half 
before.  They  were  content  to  leave  the  obstinate  head  of  George  III. 
on  his  square  shoulders  and  on  his  coins.  Having  a  sufficiency  of 
these  in  their  pockets,  they  found  an  outlet  for  their  superfluous  energies 
—an  outlet  in  sea-bathing.  Thus  one  hears  of  Margate,  which  for  years 
and  years  had  been  a  mere  member  of  the  Port  of  Dover.  "Until 
about  the  year  1787,  it  was  little  heard  of;  but  from  that  period  to  the 
present  time,  scarcely  a  summer  has  passed  without  adding  consider- 
ably to  the  number  of  its  houses  and  inhabitants,  and  increasing  the 
influx  of  its    occasional   visitors.     Those  who  have  already  partaken   of 


344  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

its  amusements  become  desirous  of  repeating  their  visits,  and  those  who 
have  never  seen  it  are  prompted  by  curiosity  to  examine  a  spot  of  which 
so  much  has  been  said." 

There  were  footpads  then  upon  the  roads,  footpads  and  extortionate 
charges  at  inns  and  aboard  stage-coaches.  But  Margate  had  its  swift- 
saiHng  and  inexpensive  hoys — the  hoys  that  Charles  Lamb  has  immor- 
talised. "A  voyage  to  Margate  in  the  hoy  is  so  tempting  to  many  of 
the  citizens  of  London  that  it  may  reasonably  be  expected" — this,  by- 
the-bye,  is  the  prose,  not  of  Elia,  but  of  Mr  Fussell — "may  reasonably 
be  expected  that  the  cheap  rate  of  conveyance  and  the  fun  and  frolic 
(not  always  very  delicate  or  very  decent  even  in  the  recital,  but  perhaps 
not  the  less  relished  by  some  of  the  lower  rank,  and  even  of  their 
betters)  which  this  mode  of  travelling  often  affords  will  increase  the 
number  of  visitors  far  beyond  all  sober  calculation.  On  such  occasions, 
the  high,  the  low,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  healthy  and  the  infirm, 
are  all  jumbled  together  in  sweet  communion,  and  afford  the  humorist 
a  treat  almost  sufficient  to  counterbalance  the  inconveniences  of  the 
voyage,  the  closeness  of  stowage,  and  the  distress  of  sea-sickness.  The 
scramble  for  places  to  witness  the  arrival  of  these  vessels  (upon  which 
the  hopes  of  Margate  are  fixed)  with  their  cargo  of  livestock,  and  the 
grotesque  figures  which  are  seen  amidst  the  throng,  present  abundance 
of  subjects  for  the  pen  of  the  satirist  as  well  as  the  pencil." 

The  bathing  itself  at  first  was,  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the 
age,  performed  in  the  bathing-rooms,  "  which  are  situated  at  the  ex- 
tremity of  the  High  Street  near  the  harbour,  and  are  commodiously 
fitted  up  with  hot  and  cold  water."  The  place,  in  fact,  was  run  upon 
lines  of  the  Spa.  One  took  the  waters  in  a  sort  of  Cockney  pump- 
room.  But  little  by  little  the  conception  of  nature  as  an  adjunct  of 
deserts  began  to  change.  This  change  was  the  one  modification  that 
the  upper  classes  can  by  no  means  be  said  to  have  introduced.  The 
Cockney  it  was   who  discovered  the  beauties  of  the  skylark's  song,    of 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  345 

the  purling  stream,  and  so  on,  and  so  on.  Even  the  poets  of  these 
things  were  called  Cockney  poets.  It  is  the  Londoner  of  to-day  who 
has  made  possible  the  existence  of  a  writer  like  Richard  Jefferies.  This 
tendency,  then,  was  growing  in  the  mass  of  people  who  bathed  in  the 
bathing-rooms  situated  at  the  extremity  of  the  High  Street — the  bathing- 
rooms  fitted  up  for  hot  and  cold  salt  water. 

At  the  psychical  moment  a  great  and  good  man  invented  the 
bathing-machine.  Great  he  was,  though  he  has  no  monument — si  monu- 
mentiim  queris,  circumspice — and  good  he  probably  was,  for  was  he  not 
"  Benjamin  Beale,  a  very  respectable  man  and  of  the  society  denomi- 
nated Quakers "  ?  The  proprietors  of  the  bathing-rooms  at  first  raised 
an  outcry  against  these  benefits  to  humanity,  against  this  benefactor,  but 
in  the  end  they  had  to  succumb,  had  to  provide  themselves  with  "a 
considerable  number  of  machines,  which  are  driven  by  proper  guides, 
well  acquainted  with  the  coast."  One  wonders  that  they  were  not 
provided  with  Cinque  Port  pilots.  Then  "a  train  of  these  machines, 
which  at  a  distance  resemble  little  covered  waggons,  may  be  seen 
moving  gently  into  the  water  almost  every  hour  of  the  day,  and  afford 
a  very  lively  and  entertaining  scene."  The  bathing-machines  proved 
the  final  stone— the  keystone — of  the  triumphant  edifice  of  the  fortunes 
of  Margate.  So  great  became  the  number  of  its  visitors  that  "indi- 
viduals are  frequently  compelled  to  wait  for  a  long  time  before  they 
can  obtain  a  dipl"  For  these  there  were  "commodious  apartments 
(although  it  cannot  be  denied  that  they  are  at  some  times  rather 
crowded),  in  which  the  company  may  seat  themselves  to  see  or  to  be 
seen,  or  walk  about  and  amuse  themselves  with  the  chit-chat  of  the 
place  until  their  turn  comes  to  'lave  the  briny  deep.'"  How  they 
achieved  this  last  operation  I  cannot  imagine. 

The  humble  little  fishing-village  was  transmogrified;  great  houses 
began  to  arise  in  Hawley  Square,  Cecil  Square,  and  so  on.  The 
place  retained,  however,  some  of  its  Spa  features  for  long  afterwards — 


346  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

had  its  Assembly  Rooms,  its  Theatre- Royal,  and  so  on.  The  first- 
named  was  a  magnificent  affair.  "The  ballroom  is  eighty-seven  feet 
long  by  forty-three  wide,  and  of  proportionable  height.  The  chandeliers, 
glasses,  and  other  ornaments  are  of  correspondent  magnificence,  and 
there  are  marble  busts  of  His  Majesty  and  the  late  Duke  of  Cumber- 
land." 

The  assemblies  were  suitably  regulated  by  a  master  of  the  cere- 
monies— alas !  that  his  name  has  not  come  down  to  be  placed  a  little 
below  that  of  the  great  Nash.  There  was  a  ball  twice  a  week  during 
the  season,  which  commences  on  the  4th  of  June  (the  King's  birth- 
day) and  terminates  on  the  last  Thursday  in  October.  There  were, 
too,  evening  promenades  on  Sundays  and  other  junkettings — perhaps 
the  word  is  too  coarse  a  one — galore  in  these  Assembly  Rooms. 
Whist,  quadrille,  commerce,  and  loo  were  the  only  games  allowed  in 
the  Rooms  without  the  express  permission  of  the  master  of  the 
ceremonies,  and  thus  Margate,  like  Hastings,  remained  moral.  More- 
over, "visitors  are  charged  eleven  shillings  for  the  use  of  two  packs  of 
cards  and  seven  for  a  single  pack,  which,  as  the  number  of  visitors 
is  very  considerable,  enables  the  conductors  to  defray  the  necessary 
domestic  expenses  and  to  retain  a  band  of  music  for  the  entertainment 
of  the  company." 

In  time  the  hoys  gave  place  to  steamers,  which  at  first  caused 
vast  amusement  and  proved  a  total  failure.  Kennet  Martin,  in  his 
'  Oral  Traditions  of  the  Cinque  Ports,'  gives  an  amusing  description  of 
the  way  in  which  he  sailed  his  hoy  round  and  round  one  of  these 
pioneers  until  the  opprobrious  epithets  and  more  injurious  missiles 
which  his  passengers  hurled  at  the  unfortunate  smoke-jack  filled  him 
with  compassion  for  his  unfortunate  rival.  But,  in  the  end,  even  he 
was  forced  to  become  the  commander  of  one  of  the  Husbands'  Boats. 

Ramsgate  was  not  so  early  prosperous.  It  lay  on  the  wrong  side 
of  the   North   Foreland,   though   it   had   its  hoy.       "  But   it   being    some- 


SANDWICH  AND   ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  347" 

times  both  dangerous  and  difficult  to  attempt  to  weather  the  North 
Foreland,  that  conveyance  is  seldom,  if  ever,  so  much  crowded  as  the 
vessels  to  Gravesend  and  Margate."  Nevertheless  Ramsgate  grew  rapidly 
during  the  first  ten  years  of  the  nineteenth  century.  In  the  time  of 
Elizabeth  its  population  was  only  100;  in  1773,  500;  in  1801,  726;  but 
by  181 1  it  boasted  of  3000,  "and  has  every  year  since  proportionably 
augmented."  It  had  its  Assembly  Rooms,  its  commodious  baths  ; 
"  Machines  also  ply  in  the  same  manner  as  at  Margate,  the  town  is 
paved  and  lighted;"  and  the  "lodging-houses,  which  were  so  numerous 
as  to  form  whole  streets  and  rows,  were  all  constructed  entirely  upon 
the  London  plan."  Fussell,  however,  who  did  not  like  the  place, 
grumbles  that,  though  "everything  which  belongs  to  building  seems  in 
this  neighbourhood  to  be  undertaken  and  conducted  with  great  spirit, 
scarcely  anybody  thinks  of  planting  a  tree  or  a  shrub,  or  even  a 
cabbage."  Not  so  large  as  Margate,  Ramsgate  nevertheless  boasted  a 
fine  harbour,  which  was  "confessedly  unrivalled,  and  was  indeed  a  most 
magnificent  work."  This,  as  soon  as  steamboats  made  the  doubling  of 
the  North  Foreland  a  matter  to  be  sneezed  at,  caused  Ramsgate  speedily 
to  draw  level  with  its  rival.  To-day  I  should  not  care  to  be  the  Paris 
that  judged  between  them. 

Both  towns  for  long  remained  members  of  their  respective  ports, 
though  Fussell  says  that  at  Margate  in  18 18  heartburning  had  already 
occurred,  and  struggles  were  beginning  to  be  made  to  procure  its  ex- 
emption from  the  rule  of  Dover,  and  also  to  establish  a  separate  and 
independent  police.  "  And,"  adds  the  sagacious  Perambulator,  "so  long 
as  the  public  peace  and  domestic  harmony  can  be  equally  obtained 
without  such  a  change,  it  is  certainly  best  that  the  administration  should 
remain  in  statu  quo.  .  .  .  The  erection  of  police  offices  and  multipli- 
cation of  these  myrmidons  of  power  yclept  constables  and  patroles  will 
neither  improve  the  morals  or  the  behaviour  of  the  inhabitants  of  Mar- 
gate and  its  visitors.      There  lurks   some  unexplained,   some  unacknow- 


348  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

ledged  cause  for  that  eager  anxiety  which  appears  to  prevail  to  employ 
about  one-half  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  place  to  rule  over  the  other 
half  It  will  not  be  found  in  superior  philanthropy,  nor  in  a  love  of 
good  order  or  good  neighbourhood,  and  it  ought  to  be  watched  with 
jealous  care.      Verbum  sat ! " 

Fussell's  word,  however,  was  not  enough.  Margate  continued  to 
struggle  on  until,  thirty-nine  years  afterwards,  it  was  granted  the  boon 
of  incorporation.  Ramsgate  did  not  receive  this  favour  until  1884,  until 
which  date  it  still  received  its  Deputy  from  Sandwich.  But  even  yet, 
"in  the  height  of  its  prosperity  and  corporate  dignity,  it  makes 
its  reverence  to  its  ancient  but  now  humbler  mistress,  and  as  a 
'  Vill  of  Sandwich '  submits  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Sandwich  Re- 
corder." Heartily  as  I  agree  with  the  right  of  a  town  like  Ramsgate 
to  govern  itself,  I  as  heartily  disagree  with  Mr  Burrows  in  styling 
Sandwich  the  humbler.  It  is  as  if  a  young  and  flourishing  doctor 
should  be  accorded  the  right  to  deem  himself  prouder  than  a  George 
Washington  —  than  any  saviour  of  his  country,  when  that  saviour 
of  his  country  has  nothing  better  to  show  than  white  hairs  and  the 
country  that  he  has  saved.  Ramsgate  and  Margate,  may  be,  instil  vital 
health  into  the  men  of  a  nation  that  chooses  to  let  its  sons  live  un- 
healthy lives  in  great  cities  ;  but  Sandwich  has  done  good  work  in  the 
past,  and  into  the  not  too  healthy  minds  of  the  men  of  the  nation  it 
still  instils  the  saving  breath — the  breath  of  life — of  a  great  tradition. 
It  is  for  this  that  the  history  of  the  Five  Ports  is  valuable.     For 

"  These  cities'  deeds  inspired  our  souls  with  breath  of  freedom,  and  shall  they 
Crave  reverence  in  vain?" 


The  Barbican,  Sandwich 


CHAPTER    XV. 

SANDWICH    AND    ITS    NEIGHBOURHOOD. 

"  They  say  the  Lion  and  the  Lizard  keep 

The  Courts  where  Jamshydd  gloried  and  drank  deep  ; 
And  Bahram,  that  great  hunter,  the  wild  Ass 

Stamps  o'er  his  head  and  cannot  break  his  sleep." 


Sandwich  lies  so  low  that  only  from  neighbouring  heights  can  one 
gain  any  idea  of  its  general  effect,  and  neighbouring  heights  are  not 
many.  It  looks  best  perhaps  from  Richborough,  next  best  from  the 
tower  of  St  Clement's  Church.  As  a  o-eneral  rule,  when  one  mounts  this 
latter,  one  first  looks  to  the  south-eastward.  One  sees  the  flat  marshes, 
the  winding  glimmer  of  the  Stour,  the  purple  sea,  the  unnatural- 
looking  wall  of  cliffs  below  the  town  of  Ramsgate.  These  last  throw 
the  whole  picture  out  of  composition  ;  give  it  an  unfinished  look,  as  if 
the  artist  had   forgotten   to  fill   in   a  parallelogram    of   his    yellowed   can- 


350  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

vas.  At  other  times  they  have  the  immovable,  stolid  impenetrability, 
seen  above  the  arm  of  the  sea,  of  a  high-sided  ironclad.  This  view, 
upon  the  whole,  looks  best  in  a  slightly  tricky  light — when  slanting 
rays  of  mellowed  sunlight  pour  through  towering  clouds,  when  rain 
impends  and  the  dun  of  the  marshes  takes  a  fresher  green.  One  looks 
at  it  for  a  time,  forgetful  of  the  town  of  Sandwich  ;  below  one's  feet 
one  has  the  remains  of  the  walls,  looking  very  like  a  railway  embank- 
ment, the  railway  itself  and  a  number  of  buildings  under  the  influence 
of  the  railway.     A  little  disappointing,  all  this. 

One  revolves  a  little,  sees  the  hilly  land  beyond  Walmer,  great 
clouds  toppling  above  them  ;  one  turns  completely — a  volte  face — and 
there  one  is  looking  at  the  roofs  of  some  foreign  city,  some  place  in 
a  land  across  the  waters  where  small  towns  become  cities.  There  is 
a  massing,  a  clustering  of  crenellated  red  roofs — many,  many,  many. 
On  the  flat  marshes  they  seem  to  rise  high  in  the  air.  They  are 
very  red,  very  much  picked  out  with  tile-shadows.  At  the  tip-top, 
curiously  emphasising  the  foreign  note,  stands  the  tall  square  tower  of 
St  Peter's  Church — the  tower  with  the  preposterous  Dutch  bulb  at 
its  top. 

Nothing  could  be  quainter,  nothing  pleasanter,  nothing  sweeter, 
than  this  assembly  of  red  roofs  ;  nothing  more  suggestive  than  that 
leaden  bulb  breaking  in  upon  the  fat  levels  of  the  marsh-land.  For  it 
is  pleasant  to  think  of  contentment,  even  of  the  contentment  of  the 
dead  and  gone.  Think,  then,  of  the  placid  pleasure  of  a  homeward- 
jogging  Sandwich  Walloon  of  the  seventeenth  century.  He  is  fat, 
prosperous,  and  contented.  No  Walloon  was  ever  otherwise.  He  has 
sold  his  quota  of  bays  at  Canterbury,  and  is  coming  complacently 
homewards  over  the  marshes,  beside  the  dykes.  He  smokes  his  nobly- 
proportioned  pipe  and  follows  the  incredibly  devious  road.  Now  from 
one  point  of  view,  now  from  another,  he  sees  that  leaden  bulb  exalted 
above  the  flats.     The   Norman  tower  of  St  Clements  has   no   message 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  351 

for  him — is  a  little  out  of  place  even  in  the  Sandwich  of  to-day.  But 
one  imagines  that  the  good  Walloons  rejoiced  when,  on  the  13th  day 
of  October  1661,  St  Peter's  Church  fell  down,  and  the  "  rubbidge  was 
three  fathoms  deep  in  the  middle  of  the  church,  and  the  bells  under- 
neath them."  The  Walloons  rejoiced,  since  now  at  last  they  might  have 
a  church-tower  fit  for  the  Low  Country  nook  in  which  they  lived. 

Perhaps  because  one  knows  that  the  new  Sandwich  owes  its  exist- 
ence to  these  excellent  foreigners  one  cannot  regard  it  as  anything  but 
a  Low  Country  seventeenth-century  town.  It  is  not,  like  Winchelsea, 
mediaeval  in  spirit  ;  not  like  Hythe  or  Romney,  a  tranquil  English 
market-town.  True,  it  still  has  its  stock-market.  On  a  Tuesday  the 
droves  of  bullocks  still  lose  their  way  in  the  winding,  narrow  streets  ; 
are  still,  by  the  sulphurous  voices  of  the  drovers,  driven  doggedly  back 
into  the  roads  they  should  follow.  But  the  tone  of  the  place  remains 
that  of  Ben  Jonson's  Alchemist.  The  empty  streets  seem  set  scenes 
for  the  poor  Elders  whom  the  Alchemist  diddled.  One  may  still,  in 
fancy,  see  the  return  of  those  poor  reverends,  see  the  stay-at-homes 
peeping  at  the  chopfallen  figures  as  they  slink  into  their  doorways,  into 
their  denuded  houses.  Sandwich,  in  fact,  is  just  Bruges,  made  smaller, 
sweeter,  and  more  radiant. 

One  notices  a  certain  darkness  of  type  in  the  faces  of  the  in- 
habitants—this mostly  in  the  smallest  children  and  in  rather  elderly 
men.  It  is  possibly  due  to  the  infusion  of  Huguenot  blood— possibly, 
though,  to  one's  own  idle  fancy.  Then,  again,  the  sense  of  orientation 
of  Sandwich  seems  to  be  totally  undeveloped.  The  streets  of  an 
ordinary  English  town  are  moderately  crooked  ;  those  of  Sandwich  are 
warped  beyond  conception — warped  into  elbows,  into  knees,  warped  till 
the  house-fronts  bulge  out  overhead.  One  sets  out  to  find  something 
—a  church,  or  an  inn  at  which  last  year  one  lodged— but  one  first 
finds  everything  else  in  the  town.  Or  again,  one  wishes  to  make  a 
conscientious  tour   of  the   town — to   traverse   all   its   streets.      One   sets 


3 52  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

out  and  is  for  ever  running  against  the  doorstep  from  which  one  started. 
It  is  a  looking-glass  town,  in  short.  One  masters  its  eccentricities  at 
last,  just  as  did  Alice  in  her  case,  and  one  spends  pleasant  enough 
hours  of  exploration.  One  passes  little  houses  -  nearly  all  the  houses 
are  little  —  whose  gardens  have  frellised  gates,  affording  glimpses  of 
garden  mysteries  beyond.  Their  fruit-trees  have  airs,  take  the  lines  of 
those  one  sees  in  the  gardens  of  foreign  inns  ;  children  peep  through 
the  gate-bars  as  if  through  convent  grilles.  Or,  through  the  doorways 
one  sees  windows  beyond,  little  square  windows  with  muslin  curtains. 
Little  old  women  stand  in  the  doorways,  or  by  the  windows — little  old 
women  who  ought  to  be  coiffed  in  white  linen.  The  quaint  streets  have 
quaintly  fitting  names — Delf  Street,    Knightrider  Street,  and  so  on. 

There  are,  however,  few  fine  houses  in  the  town — the  streets 
gain  their  charm  from  a  certain  gentle  humility,  from  not  seeking 
to  overwhelm.  The  finest  is  that  called  St  Ninian's,  which  stands 
in  Strand  Street.  Tradition  has  it  that  Queen  Elizabeth  stayed  here 
on  the  occasion  of  her  famous  visit — though  as  a  matter  of  fact  she 
did  nothing  of  the  sort.  Her  house —  "Mr  Manwood's  house"  — 
has  long  since  disappeared,  though  the  scole  house,  on  whose  wall  the 
children  sat  a-spinning,  still  stands  near  the  entrance  of  the  Canterbury 
road.  It  was  founded  to  repair  the  loss  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Car- 
melites by  "  Roger  Manwood,  a  man  born  in  the  Town  and  advanced 
by  vertue  and  good  learning  to  the  degree  first  of  a  Sergeant,  then  of 
a  Justice  at  the  Law,  and  lastly  to  a  Knighthood  and  place  of  Baron 
of  the  Exchequer.  He,  for  the  increase  of  godly ness  and  good  letters, 
erected  and  endowed  a  Fair  Free  Schoole  from  whence  there  is  hope 
that  the  Commonwealth  shall  reap  more  profit  after  a  few  years  than  it 
received  commoditie  by  the  Carmelites  since  the  time  of  their  first 
foundation."      Nowadays  it  has    fallen  to  the  estate  of  a  Sunday-school. 

The  town  has  one  or  two  show-places  that  are  worth  seeing,  but 
they    are    somewhat    in    the    way    of  excrescences,       The    uniqueness    of 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  353 

Sandwich  is  itself  aone.  It  seems  to  be  a  town  in  hiding — a  town  that 
would  gladly  be  forgotten  ;  gladly  be  left  to  itself.  When  one  thinks 
of  its  former  splendour — when  Jamshydd  gloried  and  drank  deep — one 
understands  this  well  enough.  The  poor  town  has  a  soul — a  proud 
soul  of  the  sort  that  causes  a  faded  member  of  the  haute  noblesse  to 
hide  for  ever  within  doors.  Thus  Sandwich  cowers  down,  hardly 
visible,  amid  its  marshes  ;  does  not  flaunt  itself  on  a  hill-top  as  do  Rye 
or  Winchelsea.  It  has  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of — the  poor  town,  no 
need  to  hide  itself,  but  one  feels,  as  one  passes  it  by,  somewhat  of  the 
sympathetic  thrill  that  moves  one  when,  through  the  high-barred  gates 
of  his  chateau,  one  sees  the  impoverished  Monsieur  de  So-and-so  wander- 
ing about  a  faded  jardin  anglais.  They  wait.  Monsieur  le  Vidame  and 
the  old  Port,  wait  for  something — for  that  something  for  which  we  are 
all  waiting — for  that  revolution  of  the  wheel  that  may  never  come. 

Of  the  three  churches  of  the  town  that  of  St  Clement's  with  its 
Romanesque  tower  is  the  oldest  and,  architecturally,  the  most  interesting. 
The  tower  itself  shares  with  that  of  Romney  the  distinction  of  being 
the  finest  pieces  of  .Norman  work  within  the  liberties  of  the  Ports. 
It  is  rather  more  elaborate  in  design  than  that  of  the  other  town, 
and  for  that  reason  is  perhaps  less  representatively  Norman ;  but  such 
as  it  is,  it  is  a  noble  effort  and  a  thing  to  be  thankful  for.  It  is  sup- 
ported by  four  excessively  lofty  arches  standing  in  the  centre  of  the 
church ;  indeed,  these  four  arches,  with  the  arcading  above  them  and  the 
"  hugly  faces "  on  the  pillar  capitals,  are  the  most  interesting  feature  of 
the  church.  They  have,  of  course,  been  restored;  indeed,  the  ring  of 
bells  was  in  1886  sold  to  pay  for  the  said  renovations— a  proceeding 
which  suggests  the  action  of  the  fabled  gentleman  who  sold  his  horses 
in  order  to  be  able  to  build  a  stable. 

The  rest  of  the  church  is  made  up  of  only  moderately  interesting 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  century  work ;  indeed,  the  venerable  person  who 
shows  the  church  is  quainter  and  more  characteristic  than  the  building 

z 


354  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

on  which  he  dilates.  His  gloating  over  the  piscina,  which  has  a  "hugly 
face"  in  it,  and  which  he  declares  to  be  of  excessive  rarity,  is  certainly 
more  inspiring  than  the  incredibly  hideous,  varnished,  pitch-pine  seats 
in  the  body  of  the  church.  One  trusts  that  he  at  least  will  long  escape 
the  process  of  renovation.  The  font  is  not  uninteresting,  for,  though 
commonplace  in  design,  it  is  decorated  with  four  coats  of  arms  :  firstly, 
those  of  England  and  France  quartered  ;  secondly,  those  of  the  Port  of 
Sandwich  ;  then  those  of  an  Archdeacon  under  whom  some  of  the 
fifteenth-century  additions  to  the  church  were  made ;  and  then  a 
scutcheon  bearing  a  merchant's  mark — probably  the  mark  of  the 
donor  of  the  font.  Among  the  tombstones  of  the  flooring  and  walls 
are  those  of  several  admirals  and  sea-captains,  whilst  near  the  high 
altar  is  the  monument  of  Frances  Rampson,  "  A  widdow,  stranger  to 
this  place."  It  bears  the  rather  pathetic  inscription :  "Hoc  parvulum 
monumentum  poni  curavit  Edwardus  Rede,  miles,  in  perpetuam  me- 
moriam  Francisse  Rampson  viduae,  cui  fidem  in  matrimonio  contrax- 
erat." 

Of  the  other  churches  of  Sandwich,  that  dedicated  to  St  Mary  is 
probably  the  older,  but  it  was  so  radically  damaged  by  the  fall  of  its 
tower  in  1667,  that  its  antiquity  is  hardly  recognisable.  St  Peter's 
Church,  as  I  have  already  mentioned,  suffered,  like  St  Mary's,  from 
a  seventeenth-century  downfall.  The  thirteenth-century  tower  seems 
to  have  fallen  upon  the  south  aisle,  which  was  completely  destroyed^ 
The  consequent  walling  up  of  the  chancel  arches  has  imparted  to  the 
church  an  altogether  esoteric  quaintness — a  quaintness  quite  foreign 
to  its  original  design.  i'he  tower  was  afterwards  given  its  present 
appearance,  "bricks  made  from  the  mud  of  the  haven"  being  em- 
ployed in  the  work.  The  so-called  "Hermitage"  on  the  south-eastern 
exterior  of  the  church  is  one  of  its  most  interesting  features.  It  seems 
to  have  been  inhabited  by  anchoresses — was  so,  at  least,  when  Henry 
VIII.  drove  all  such  people  out  into   a  hard  world.       Beneath   it   there 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  355 

is  a  vaulted  crypt,   which,  says   Tradition,   was   used   as   a   hiding-place 
of  the  church  plate  and  jewels. 

Just  without  the  town,,  on  the  Dover  Road,  stands  the  assemblage 
of  little  buildings  called  St  Bartholomew's  Hospital.  It  is  dignified  by 
a  little  chapel,  which  used  to  be  a  piece  of  very  charming  thirteenth- 
century  architecture.  Unfortunately  the  late  Sir  Gilbert  Scott— emulous 
perhaps  of  Brave  Blake — was  induced  to  frisk  it  like  a  dragon  throughout 
the  precious  building.  As  a  result,  a  great  part  of  its  charm  is  perma- 
nently lost,  though,  by  dint  of  sedulous  imagination,  one  may  gather 
some  ideas  of  the  former  beauty  of  its  ranges  of  windows  and  its  door- 
ways. According  to  a  Bull  of  Innocent  IV.,  it  was  founded  about  the 
year  1244  by  Henry  de  Sandwich,  "for  the  support  of  the  weakly 
and  infirm,  the  Brothers  and  Sisters  living  under  an  order  of  discipline, 
being  maintained  at  table,  and  wearing  an  uniform  habit."  Various 
post-Reformation  efforts  were  made  to  suppress  the  institution,  but 
Henry  VIII.  confirmed  its  charters,  which  seem  to  have  been  limited 
to  the  Bull  of  Innocent,  though  the  chaplains  attached  to  it  were  then 
dismissed.  Edward  III.  granted  the  Hospital  "all  the  profits  of  the 
ferry  over  the  haven  betwixt  Sandwich  and  Stonor,"  and  Boys  quotes 
a  number  of  quaint  particulars  relating  to  the  ceremony  of  annual  visi- 
tation, which  was  performed  by  the  Mayor  and  Jurats.  It  now  sup- 
ports sixteen  old  people,  who  receive  £ao  a  year.  There  are  two 
other  ancient  hospitals  in  the  town— those  of  St  John  and  St  Thomas. 
The  former  is  a  thirteenth-century  foundation,  which,  besides  being  a 
Hospital,  filled  some  of  the  functions  of  a  Harbinge  or  refuge  for 
destitute  travellers.  Perhaps  it  was  here  that  the  unfortunate  archers 
from  Agincourt  found  solace.  Of  the  old  gates  there  exists  at  the  pre- 
sent day  but  one— the  Fishers'— though  the  Barbican  which  spans  the 
entering  road  from  Ramsgate  has  a  great  deal  of  quaintness,  and  some 
of  the  appearance  of  an  old  gateway.  Round  about  the  town  go  the 
Qld  earthworks,  the  former  ramparts.     To-day  they  form  a  pleasant  pro- 


356  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

menade  for  sunny  weather,  now  that  the  sword  of  Sandwich  has  been 
beaten  into  a  pruning-hook.  On  a  Sunday  at  sunset  they  are  pleasant 
to  walk  upon.  If  it  is  near  service-time,  there  is  an  incredible  clangour 
of  bells,  which  in  exalted  rivalry  outdo  each  other  in  outcry  of  invita- 
tion to  prayer.  There  is  something  golden  in  the  sound — something 
golden  in  the  red  glow  of  the  sunlight  on  the  roofs — something  of 
gold  in  the  old  town  from  which  the  gold  of  the  earth  has  passed. 
But  it  retains,  perhaps,  a  better  sort  of  gold — sunset  gold,  rainbow 
gold — a  gold  rarer  and  of  greater  price  than  that  which  we  earn  with 
the  sweat  of  our  brows. 

The  pleasantest  view  of  Sandwich  one  gets,  as  I  have  already  said, 
from  the  ruins  of  Richborough  Castle.  These  one  reaches  from  the 
town  by  taking  the  street  which  turns  to  the  left  just  as  the  Rams- 
gate  Road  makes  its  exit  under  the  Barbican  Gate.  One  winds  for 
a  time  through  the  devious  narrow  streets,  passes  out  of  them  at  last 
into  a  fair  road,  then  takes  an  excessively  bad  one  that  unostenta- 
tiously branches  off  to  the  right.  One  has  perhaps  a  mile  and  a  half 
of  flat,  rich  ground  to  cover.  The  Stour  winds  sluggishly  serpentine 
through  it  ;  a  fairly  broad,  very  leisurely  piece  of  water,  bordered  by 
bands  of  rushes  and  meadow-sweet,  and  in  the  summer  beloved  by 
cattle,  which  might  stand  for  a  Cuyp  of  these  latter  days. 

To  reach  Richborough,  one  has  to  climb  a  little  ridge,  which  in 
some  ways  suggests  the  hill  on  which  stands  Winchelsea.  The  Stour 
meanders  near  its  base,  leaving  room  for  the  more  direct  railway  lines. 
Towards  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  erstwhile  island  rise  the  frag- 
mentary Titanic  walls  of  the  casde.  They  stand,  for  all  the  world,  like 
a  gigantic  tooth-stump,  up  out  of  broad  cornfields.  They  are  grey,  and 
in  places  covered  with  the  metallic  leaves  of  great  ivy  plants ;  they  are 
hollowed  out,  scarred,  quarried ;  have  been  violently  assailed  by  the 
hands  of  Time,  of  house-builders,  of  archaeologists,  but  they  remain 
nonchalant,  massive  in  the  extreme.     One  would  deem,  indeed,  that  the 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  357 

place  defies  Time  and  the  weather — Time  and  the  weather,   which  only 
serve  to  harden  the  mortar  of  its  stones. 

The  walls  nearly  surround  a  large  green  lawn,  are  in  turn  sur- 
rounded by  a  high  wire  fence,  which  serves  to  net  the  sixpences  of 
visitors.  There  is,  however,  not  very  much  to  see  within  the  enclosed 
space,  for  the  view  is  carefully  shut  out  by  screens  of  young  trees. 
Under  the  grass  near  the  centre  of  the  castle  are  the  foundations  of 
what  was  once  a  mass  of  cruciform  masonry.  What  purpose  it  served 
is  not  known,  but  it  was  probably  by  way  of  being  a  Pharos  or  look- 
out tower  of  some  sort.  They  show  one,  too,  subterranean  chambers 
and  other  more  or  less  unexplained  things.  Touching  the  hardness  of 
the  fabric,  it  is  not  uninteresting  to  note  that  the  Kent  archseologists  who 
here  carried  on  excavations  found  that  it  was  easier  to  cut  through  the 
flints  than  through  the  mortar  which  embedded  them.  Indeed,  but  for 
this  same  hardness  there  would  to-day  little  be  left  of  the  place  in  which 
the  Romans  kept  their  ceaseless  watch  over  sea  and  land ;  of  the  place  in 
which — so  they  say — Ethelbert  received  a  Roman  faith  that  has  outlasted 
so  many  empires  whose  soldiers  kept  ceaseless  watch  over  sea  and  land. 

The  fields  all  round  the  castle  are  said  to  be  full  of  Roman  relics. 
If  one  is  in  luck,  one's  walking-stick  will  strike  upon  gold  coins,  or 
silver  or  brass.  At  the  worst,  one  has  a  pleasant  glimpse  of  the  town 
of  Sandwich.  One  sees  St  Peter's  Church  dominating  the  town,  St 
Clement's  tower  peeping  warily  above  the  house-tops  behind ;  but  what 
draws  together  the  whole  picture,  the  roofs,  the  Barbican,  the  bridge, 
the  river,  and  what  not,  are  the  rust-red  slants  of  the  few  furled  barge- 
sails,  the  cordage  and  the  vanes  of  the  sparse  shipping  by  the  quays. 
These  seem  to  give  a  reason  to  the  shining  little  town,  to  the  gleam- 
ing little  river,  to  the  flagged  marshes,  to  the  sweep  of  sky.  Farther 
out  one  sees  the  sea,  between  it  and  the  town  the  great  sail  of 
another  barge  slowly  ascending  the  reaches  of  the  river. 

It  is  worth  while  to  make  for  Sarre  across  the  forgotten  country  at 


3S8  THE  CINQUE  PORTS. 

the  back  of  Richborough.  One  may  find  better  roads  by  making  a 
circuit,  but,  if  one  is  in  the  mood,  there  are  better  things  than  good 
roads.  Those  that  wind  up  and  down  the  hills  here  are  exceptionally 
bad  and  stony.  One  follows  more  or  less  the  shores  of  the  old  estuary ; 
without  a  doubt  one's  sunken  road  once  just  fringed  the  high-water 
mark.  In  those  days,  had  one  travelled  the  road,  one  would  have  seen 
pass  one  the  ships  that  went  to  the  making  of  London,  just  as  to-day, 
when  one  travels  along  the  Thames  towards  its  mouth,  one  sees  the 
crowding  funnels  of  the  great  cargo-steamers,  the  languid  stretch  of 
the  great  barge-sails. 

The  road,  as  I  have  said,  follows  the  course  of  the  haven,  but  it 
is  a  road  too  obscure,  too  secret,  to  be  marked  on  most  maps.  There 
are  very  few  signposts  too.  From  various  points,  between  hedges, 
over  white  farm-gates,  one  sees  the  highlands  of  Thanet  run  west- 
ward across  one's  path.  But  it  is  useless  to  take  a  road  which  seems 
to  run  towards  them  ;  for  here  roads  that  have  every  appearance  of  an 
energetic  northerliness  of  purpose  almost  invariably  have  a  southern 
goal.  All  that  one  can  do  is  to  ask  one's  way  whenever  one  reaches  a 
ventways.  If  one  be  too  proud,  one  finds  oneself  at  Ash  or  at  Eastry — 
finds  oneself  there  with  amazing  suddenness.  One  should  make  first 
for  Emston,  then  for  Presston,  then  for  Grove  Ferry. 

Before  reaching  this  last,  one  strikes  a  band  of  marshland  of  a 
pleasant  vividness  of  colour.  One  goes  down -hill  into  it  —  one 
turns  one's  head  to  the  left,  and  there,  above  a  bend  of  the 
narrowing  valley,  sees  a  spire  stand  up  serenely  against  the  distant 
hills.  One  gently  wonders  what  it  is,  for  there  is  a  certain  august- 
ness  in  its  uprising  that  differentiates  it  from  the  spire  of  an  ordinary 
village  church.     It  is,  of  course,   Bell  Harry. 

It  looks  best,  perhaps,  against  a  watery  sunset,  when  the  narrowing 
marshes  glint  and  sparkle,  and  the  river  itself  is  an  ashy-purple,  over 
the  purple  smoke  from  the  city  fires.     To  the  right  the  marshes  broaden 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  359 

suavely  out,  the  sky  broadens  suavely  out,  all  the  lines  are  placidly 
horizontal,  as  befits  a  place  that  the  sea  left  long  ago.  Near  Grove 
Ferry  the  air  is  full  of  a  pleasant  odour,  the  pleasant  odour  that 
suggests  old  maids  named  Lavinia,  high-backed  chairs,  tranquil  parlours, 
china  bowls  of  pot-pourri,  and  great  linen-presses — the  scent  of  lavender. 
It  grows  in  great  fields  by  the  side  of  the  Stour. 

One  comes  upon  that  devious  river  somewhat  suddenly  at  Grove 
Ferry.  It  cuts  the  road  in  half,  and  is  negotiated  by  means  of  a  kind 
of  pontoon.  In  these,  its  higher  reaches,  it  has  grown  very  narrow  ;  in 
times  of  drought  there  is  only  a  space  of  three  or  four  feet  between 
the  end  of  the  ferry  and  the  opposite  shore.  The  hamlet,  a  charming 
place,  lies  just  beside  the  railway  lines,  below  the  bank  along  which  runs 
the  highroad  from  London  and  Canterbury  to  the  Isle  of  Thanet. 

The  highroad  is  like  a  piece  of  one  of  Napoleon's  roads  across 
Europe.  It  runs  very  straight  over  hill  and  down,  and  on  either  side 
is  bordered  by  tall  trees  ;  indeed,  if  one  were  dropped  suddenly  upon 
it,  one  would  swear  one  was  somewhere  upon  the  road  between  Ver- 
sailles and  Blois.  In  a  sudden  elbow  of  this  road  one  comes  upon  a 
little  hamlet  made  up  of  two  inns  and  two  or  three  small  houses,  a 
hamlet  that  has  a  certain  dignity.  In  white  letters  upon  a  black  board 
this  place  proclaims  itself  the  Ville  of  Sarre — "the  common  ferry  when 
Thanet  was  full  iled."  In  Saxon  days,  as  I  have  said,  Sarre  was  a 
place  of  importance,  and  though  it  has  lost  this,  it  retains  still  a 
certain  semblance  of  officialism,  much  as  do  men  who  have  retired  from 
one  or  other  of  the  public  services.  It  remains,  moreover,  a  ville  of 
the  Port  of  Sandwich,  and  is  governed -by  a  Deputy  who  swears  "faith 
to  bear  to  the  Queen  and  to  the  statutes  and  liberties  of  the  Five  Ports, 
and  more  especially  of  the  Town  and  Port  of  Sandwich." 

Members  of  the  ports  of  Sandwich  and  Dover  dot  the  entire  coast- 
line of  the  island.  If,  however,  one  be  bent  on  seeing  all  the  members  of 
these  two  ports,  one  will  do  best  to  retrace  one's  course  along  the  quasi- 


36o  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

continental  highway  as  far  as  the  town  of  Fordwich.  This  was  once 
the  port  of  the  city  of  Canterbury,  and  shared  with  other  seven  the 
privileges  of  corporate  membership.  Like  Seaford,  and  like  Pevensey, 
its  corporate  dignity  was  lately  abolished,  but  it  retains  an  air  of  ancient 
worth  that  even  Sir  Charles  Dilke's  Act  was  unable  to  tear  from  it.  It 
lies,  a  green  and  watered  nook,  a  few  furlongs  off  the  Canterbury  road, 
beside  the  commonplace  little  village  of  Sturry.  It  flourished  till  the 
inconstant  sea  withdrew  its  patronage,  and  nowadays  it  is  impossible  to 
believe  that  the  sea  ever  ran  where  now  luxuriate  its  embowering  trees. 
But  it  retains  its  tiny  town-hall,  its  cucking-stool,  and  a  number  of 
records  which  go  to  prove  its  former  prosperity,  even  if  the  substantial 
air  of  its  few  remaining  houses  would  not  satisfy  one  as  to  this.  Like 
the  other  ports,  it  had  its  custumal — a  custumal  which  proves  that  its 
habits  were  as  quaintly  rational  as  those  of  any  other  town.  What,  for 
instance,  could  have  been  more  conducive  to  justice  than  its  criminal 
trials  by  ordeal,  in  which  the  accuser,  "  fully  equipped  as  a  prosecutor 
should  be,  shall  stand  up  to  his  navel  in  the  Stair,  prepared  to  prove 
his  charge.  The  accused  shall  come  in  a  boat,  clothed  in  a  dress  called 
'  Storrie,'  with  a  weapon  called  an  ore,  three  yards  in  length.  The  boat 
is  to  be  fastened  to  the  quay  by  a  cord,  and  he  shall  fight  with  the 
said  prosecutor  till  the  matter  is  decided."  Unless  the  dress  called 
Storrie  was  less  commodious  than  the  due  equipment  of  an  accuser,  the 
onus  probandi  must,  as  a  rule,  have  proved  too  much  for  most  prosecu- 
tors ;  but  a  number  of  these  trials  must  have  afforded  all  the  enjoyment 
of  a  modern  regatta  to  the  public  of  Fordwich  courts  of  law.  In  this,  it 
is  true,  Fordwich  did  not  stand  alone,  for,  at  Sandwich,  its  capital  member, 
criminals  adjudged  worthy  of  death  were  drowned  in  the  harbour.  In- 
deed, when  Sandwich  haven  silted  up,  the  magistrates  of  the  town 
raised  outcry  because  there  was  no  longer  sufficient  water  in  which  to 
drown  a  criminal.  The  place,  they  said,  bade  fair  to  become  safe  har- 
bour  for   all   rogues   and   sundry.      What  happened  at   Fordwich  under 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  361 

similar  circumstances  I  do  not  quite  know.  The  trials  there  must  have 
had  results,  for  Ireland  tells  us  that  there  was  a  gallows  below  the  quay, 
"  which  was  taken  down  some  years  back."  Fordwich,  moreover,  was 
long  celebrated  for  the  superior  flavour  of  its  trout,  of  which,  according 
to  Hasted,   "not  more  than  thirty  were  produced  in  a  year." 

To  reach  the  Reculvers  from  Fordwich,  one  strikes  due  north. 
The  country  through  which  one  passes  is  full  of  little  villages  which 
have  had  ecclesiastical  significance  —  a  significance  due  to  their 
nearness  to  the  metropolitan  city.  Thus,  in  Heme,  Ridley  had 
his  first  cure  of  souls,  and,  says  Ireland,  "  '  Te  Deum'  in  English 
was  first  chaunted  in  Heme  Church  by  the  above-mentioned  divine 
and  martyr."  At  Hoth  stood  the  ancient  archiepiscopal  palace  of  Ford, 
"  a  dwelling,"  says  Archbishop  Parker,  "  in  such  a  soil,  and  occupy- 
ing such  a  corner,  he  thought  no  mJin  living  could  delight  to  dwell 
there."  He  petitioned  Elizabeth  for  permission  to  pull  it  down,  but  the 
permission  was  not  accorded.  However,  in  1658,  the  Parliament  ren- 
dered the  See  this  unwitting  service,  and  now  hardly  a  trace  of  the 
fabric  remains.  It  is,  however,  worthy  of  note  that  despite  the  badness 
of  its  soil  the  Archbishop  had  here  a  vineyard  which  is  said  to  have 
produced  very  excellent  wine. 

The  roads  in  this  part  are  almost  uniformly  trying  of  ascent  and 
descent,  and  almost  uniformly  bad,  whilst  the  country  itself  is  by  no 
means  beautiful.  The  twin  towers  of  the  Reculver  Church  soon  become 
a  landmark,  and  the  spot  itself  is  well  worth  the  attaining.  For  centuries 
past  it  has  been,  as  it  remains,  a  lonely  sea-hamlet.  Nowadays,  during 
the  summer,  it  is  somewhat  of  a  show-place,  but  in  the  winter,  or  in 
rain  times,  it  is  desolate  enough  to  serve  the  turn. 

The  castle  itself,  in  aspect  and  in  fabric,  much  resembles  that  of 
Richborough,  but  the  earth  is  now  level  with  the  top  of  what  of  its 
walls  remains,  and  on  this  earth  a  few  small  white  houses  cluster.  The 
Roman  relics  found  here  have  been  innumerable ;  innumerable,  too,  have 


362  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

been  those  elder  relics,  fossils ;  mofeover,  the  remains  of  a  former  forest 
have  been  found.  This  goes  to  prove  that,  in  the  times  when  the  Roman 
soldiers  kept  vi^atch  and  ward,  the  castle  must  have  stood  far  from  the 
sea.  In  Leland's  day  it  was  distant  half  a  mile.  Nowadays  the  sea 
has  washed  away  the  seaward  castle  walls,  will  soon  wash  away  the 
rest.  It  is  rather  a  repulsive  sea,  too — a  grey,  muddy,  estuary  tide 
over  which  the  gaunt  church  towers  look  out.  It  seems  truest  to  its 
character  on  a  gusty  day,  when  squalls  darken  the  leaden,  level  waters 
and  the  leaden  skies  ;  at  low  tide,  when  the  wet  mud-flats  and  the  wet 
breakwater  stumps  reflect  a  pallid  light. 

Away  up  into  the  air  soar  the  ugly  twin  towers,  with  the  clumsy 
vanes  a-top.  From  up  there  one  has  a  great  view  ;  one  sees  the  whole 
of  the  Island  of  Thanet,  a  goodly  stretch  of  the  county  of  Kent,  the 
exquisite  hideousness  of  Heme  Bay.  One  can  see  across  the  mouth  of 
the  Thames,  across  to  Brightlingsea  in  Essex — Brightlingsea  which,  like 
the  Reculvers  itself,  remains  a  member  of  the  port  of  Sandwich.  The 
whole  tone  of  Reculver  is  bitter ;  there  is  nothing  mellow,  nothing  tranquil 
about  its  decay.  It  has  the  hardness  of  poverty,  the  pessimism  of  a  place 
confronted  for  ever  and  ever  with  an  inevitable  fact ;  for  ever  confronted 
with,  for  ever  recoiling  from,  a  repulsive  sea — a  sea  whose  very  foam 
is  muddy,  sordid.  It  affects  one  as  one  is  affected  by  the  protests  of 
a  wretchedly  poor  man,  condemned  for  ever  to  dwell  in  a  factory  town. 

After  the  coming  of  St  Augustine,  Ethelbert  is  said  to  have  taken 
up  his  dwelling  here,  and,  very  little  later,  religious  foundations  here 
found  their  homes.  Perhaps  to  one  or  other  of  these  the  church  owes 
its  origin  ;  legend,  of  course,  calls  it,  or  rather  its  towers,  a  tribute  of 
sisterly  love.  Ireland  gives  the  following  version  of  the  legend,  which 
he  professes  to  have  gathered  from  a  manuscript  left  in  the  library  of 
the  College  of  Louvain  by  an  English  Dominican  monk  of  Canterbury. 

There  were  twin  sisters,  the  one  an  abbess  of  a  Benedictine 
convent  at   Davington,  the  other  a  nun  in  that  convent.     There  came 


SANDWICH  AND   ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  363 

a  time  when  Abbess  Frances  was  afflicted  by  a  painful  illness:  craving 
relief  she  vowed  to  lay  on  the  altar  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  of  Broad- 
stairs  a  precious  gift.  When  relief  came  she  set  out  on  a  ship  of 
Faversham,  being  accompanied  by  her  sister  Isabel.  Before  they  had 
been  at  sea  two  hours  arose  a  violent  storm,  and  the  sailors  tried  to 
run  ashore  at  Reculver.  In  the  darkness  they  missed  their  port  and 
struck  on  the  bank  called  the  Horse.  Abbess  Frances  was  separated 
from  her  sister,  and  by  force,  she  being  a  person  of  importance, 
eafried  ashore  in  the  ship's  boat.  Her  twin  sister  Isabel  "had  con-^ 
tinned  in  the  cabin,  one  side  of  which  had  been  washed  away,  the 
space  being  half  filled  with  water."  In  the  end  a  boat  put  off  from 
Reculver,  which  saved  the  rest  of  the  passengers,  and  brought  poor 
Isabel  ashore  to  die. 

"The  abbess  did  not  fail  to  transmit,  through  her  confessor,  the 
offerings  intended  for  the  Virgin  at  Broadstairs,  accompanied  by  a 
donation  of  twelve  masses  to  be  celebrated  for  the  repose  of  her 
sister's  soul.  Soon  after  which,  in  order  to  perpetuate  the  memory 
of  her  sister,  as  well  as  to  direct  mariners  how  to  avoid  the  calamity 
she  had  experienced,  the  abbess  caused  the  two  towers  of  the  ancient 
church  of  Reculver  to  be  repaired,  they  having  fallen  into  a  state  of 
decay,  which  two  spiral  elevations  she  directed  should  be  called  the 
Sisters.  These  objects  still  retain  the  name,  being  also  a  sea-mark 
of  long-acknowledged  utility  to  mariners." 

The  old  church  was  gradually  rendered  useless  by  the  sea ;  its 
final  demolition  took  place  at  the  hands  of  the  persons  who  converted 
it  into  a  quarry  for  the  benefit  of  the  present  religious  edifice. 
When  they  set  about  this,  search  was  made  for  the  remains  of  King 
Ethelbert,  who,  according  to  the  legend,  was  buried  here.  The  walls 
of  the  church  were  found  to  be  so  hard  that  no  tool  could  touch 
them.  Gunpowder  was  accordingly  employed  to  aid  the  work  of  dis- 
covery.    The  search  had  been  abandoned,  and   the  workmen  had  gone 


364  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

home  to  rest,  having  found  nothing  but  a  stone  coffin-lid ;  "  but  on 
their  return  they  found  the  wall  had  given  way,  and  from  some 
unknown  recess  had  fallen  antique  stone  carved  figures  of  the  twelve 
apostles,  and  a  lion,  richly  ornamented  with  plates  of  gold."  This,  at 
least,  is  the  local  tradition. 

A  few  years  ago  the  place  was  even  more  desolate  than  it  is  to- 
day. Human  bones  stuck  out  of  the  hillside  below  the  gaunt  fragments 
of  the  church ;  indeed,  one  may  still  read  a  placard  which  announces 
the  penalty  for  those  who  stole  the  said  bones.  But  at  present  the 
hillside  is  decorously  turfed,  and  that  much  of  gloom  for  the  time 
lifted  off  the  place.  A  few  years  ago,  too,  a  journey  to  the  Reculvers 
was  fraught  with  some  peril.  Mr  Roach  Smith,  in  the  first  few  pages 
of  the  first  volume  of  his  'Retrospections,'  gives  a  graphic  account  of 
the  trials  of  spirit  he  incurred  during  his  first  twilight  passage  through 
the  marshes  from  St  Nicholas,  near  Sarre.  He  lost  his  way,  in  fact, 
among  the  marsh-land  dykes,  and  in  that  twilight  land  of  clay  had  his 
bad  quarter-hours.  To-day  one  may  safely  and  with  some  convenience 
make  one's  way  from  the  Reculvers  to  Birchington.  The  path  lies 
along  the  top  of  a  rather  perfunctory  sea-wall,  which  in  places  is 
composed  of  mud,  in  others  of  shingle.  After  a  mile  or  so  of  walking 
over  what  was  once  the  mouth  of  the  Wantsum,  one  reaches  the  clay 
slopes  of  Cliff  End ;  after  another  short  space  the  clay  gives  place  to 
low  cliffs  of  chalk.  When  the  tide  is  low  one  may  conveniently  and 
very  pleasurably  walk  along  the  broad,  ribbed  sands  beneath  the  cliffs. 
The  cliffs  themselves  are  lamentably  tortured  by  the  sea ;  have  been 
fretted  into  miniature  caverns,  into  miniature  pinnacles ;  look  for  all 
the  world  like  small  copies  of  the  torn  stones  of  the  cliffs  round 
Kynance  Cove.  The  north  winds  blow  down  upon  the  place,  unin- 
terrupted, from  the  Pole  itself,  as  they  say ;  and  if  the  billows  have 
not  the  unbroken  sweep  of  the  Atlantic  rollers,  they  have  at  least 
a    dog-tooth    violence    of    their    own.       In    the    face    of    this    petulant 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  365 

element  one  is  tempted  to  fall  a-wondering  what  will  be  the  ulti- 
mate fate  of  these  coast  towns.  This  sea,  which  never  has,  which 
never  will,  know  its  own  mind,  must  in  the  end— at  long,  long  last — 
devour  the  Isle  of  Thanet ;  must  in  the  end  break  through  the  feeble 
barrier  that  keeps  it  out  of  its  estuary  of  the  Wantsum.  Then,  perhaps, 
Sandwich  will  have  its  own  again. 

In  the  meantime,  all  round  the  island,  go  the  pleasure  towns  that 
once  were  members  of  the  Ports.  One  begins  with  Birchington,  under 
the  shadow  of  whose  church  sleeps  Rossetti — a  man  "honoured  among 
painters  as  a  painter,  and  among  poets  as  a  poet."  The  place  itself 
is  vastly  un-Rossettian  to-day,  and  in  the  time  when,  calling  itself 
Guesend,  it  was  a  member  of  the  Port  of  Dover,  it  did  little  to  dis- 
tinguish itself.  Indeed,  one  knows  little  more  of  it  than  the  fact 
that  in  the  7th  Elizabeth  it  had  "neyther  shypp  nor  boat."  As  much 
may  be  said  for  the  village  once  called  Birchington  Wood,  now  Wood- 
church.  St  John's,  another  of  Dover's  members,  is  now  a  suburb  of 
Margate.  Margate  I  do  not  feel  called  to  describe.  Its  glories  are 
beyond  help  or  hindrance  from  a  moderately  unsympathetic  pen.  Its 
history  I  have  already  attempted  to  trace.  Says  Sylvanus  Urban  I. : 
"  The  bay  wherein  the  company  bathe  at  Margate  is  about  half  a  mile 
in  breadth,  and  has  not  its  equal  in  this  kingdom.  The  surface  is  a 
fine,  clean  sand,  perfectly  free  from  rocks,  stones,  sea-weed,  and  all 
manner  of  soil  and  filth ;  and  lies  on  so  gentle  and  regular  a  descent, 
that  the  sea,  at  low  water,  ebbs  away  about  half  a  mile  from  the 
shore.  .  .  .  The  machines  THERE  have  their  merits  too,  and  are 
universally  allowed  to  be  the  best  contrived  of  any  in  the  kingdom  for 
convenience,  safety,  privacy,  and  expedition  of  driving  into  and  out 
of  the  sea." 

Margate  retains  to-day  the  pre-eminence  that  it  had  in  the  time 
of  Cave  and  of  Dr  Johnson.  Between  it  and  St  Peter's,  the  last  of 
Dover's  members   that   I    shall   mention,   lies  the  once   dreaded   North 


366  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

Foreland.  Steam  has  robbed  it  of  some  of  its  horrors,  but  in  its  day 
its  name  had  a  sound  as  evil  as  that  of  Beachy  Head  at  the  other 
extreme  of  the  Liberties.  Like  Beachy  Head  it  had  its  wreckers. 
"The  seamen  on  this  coast  are  very  expert  sailors,  and  dauntless  in 
pushing  off  to  sea  in  the  roughest  weather  to  succour  ships  in  distress. 
They  have,  however,  the  reputation  of  being  too  much  given  to  pilfer 
stranded  vessels  and  disabling  those  that  have  severely  suffered  from 
the  effects  of  a  tempestuous  sea.  .  .  .  Under  pretence  of  yielding  as- 
sistance and  rescuing  property,  they  plunder  and  convert  the  same  to 
their  own  use,  by  making  what  they  term  guile  shares,  that  is  to  say, 
cheating  shares."  When  not  engaged  in  disabling  those  that  had 
severely  suffered  from  the  effects  of  a  tempestuous  sea,  the  local  fisher- 
men sometimes  fished ;  when  engaged  in  neither  of  these  avocations 
they  smuggled,  and  led  cheery  lives. 

Broadstairs,  which  was  once  called  St  Peter's,  had  as  inglorious  a 
career  as  a  Ports'  member,  as  did  most  of  the  other  Thanet  villages. 
As  a  bathing-place,  it  is  the  product  of  this  century.  Its  evolution  was 
practically  that  of  Margate,  though  the  process  began  a  little  later. 
Fussell  scorned  its  pretensions,  but  Dickens  has  conferred  immortality 
on  the  neighbourhood,  and  Broadstairs  flourishes.  Before  Dickens'  day 
the  place  had  been  celebrated  as  the  last  home  of  a  monstrous  fish,  a 
creature  in  whose  mouth  three  men  stood  erect,  whose  eye  was  more 
than  a  cart  and  six  horses  could  draw,  whose  length  was  twenty-two 
yards.     This  at  least  is  Kilburn's  story. 

Leaving  this  last  dependency  of  Dover  we  find  within  a  few  miles 
the  town  of  Ramsgate  with  its  suburb,  St  Laurence's,  which  two 
places  were  in  their  day  members  of  the  Port  of  Sandwich.  As  a 
port  Ramsgate  may  be  taken  more  seriously  than  any  of  the  Thanet 
towns.  Its  harbour  was  almost  entirely  a  product  of  the  eighteenth 
century ;  but  it  proved  for  a  time  of  considerable  importance,  both  as  a 
haven  of  refuge,   and  as   a   port   for   the   trad?  with    Russia   and   other 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  ^67 

parts  of  the  east  of  Europe.  It  is  said  that  during  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury /6oo,ooo  were  spent  upon  the  harbour,  which  was  constructed  under 
the  direction  of  Smeaton  of  Eddystone  fame.  For  many  years  packets 
sailed  regularly  twice  a  week  for  Calais,  Boulogne,  and  more  par- 
ticularly to  Ostend.  Ramsgate,  in  fact,  set  up  as  a  rival  to  Dover, 
and  as  long  as  Hanover  remained  linked  to  England  the  Thanet 
towns  seem  to  have  been  the  favourite  ports  of  embarkation  for  the 
sovereigns  when  visiting  their  foreign  dependencies.  Aforetimes,  one 
remembers,  the  Cinque  Ports  owed  some  of  their  prosperity  to  a  similar 
concatenation  of  circumstances.  One  reads  :  "  In  order  to  commemorate 
the  departure  of  his  present  Majesty  {George  IV.)  when  he  sailed 
from  this  port  for  the  purpose  of  visiting  Hanover,  the  inhabitants, 
&c.,  opened  a  subscription  for  the  erecting  a  memorial  of  that  event, 
which  soon  amounted  to  ;^iooo.  With  that  sum  an  obelisk  was  raised 
bearing  appropriate  inscriptions,  at  the  entrance  on  the  east  side  of 
the  pier ;  and,  in  consequence  of  the  affectionate  reception  experienced 
by  the  king,  he  was  graciously  pleased  to  confer  upon  the  harbour 
the  denomination  of  '  Royal,'  directing  that  his  royal  standard  should 
be  displayed  on  particular  occasions."  Our  earlier  and  better  kings 
did  more  for  the  ports  that  served  them. 

The  highroad  between  Ramsgate  and  Sandwich  is  rather  flat, 
rather  unsheltered,  rather  arid,  a  little  uninteresting.  A  little  distance 
to  the  right  of  it  lies  the  little  village  of  Minster — the  Minster  of  St 
Mildred ;  a  little  to  the  left  is  Ippedsfleet,  or  Ebbsfleet,  the  scene  of 
historic  landings.  They  say  that  the  stone  on  which  was  the  impress 
of  St  Mildred's  foot  was  broken  up  by  road-menders  in  the  second 
decade  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Quite  near  in  to  Sandwich  is  the 
tiny  hamlet  of  Stonor — -of  Stonor  that  was  once  Lundenwic,  that  once 
bade  fair  to  vanquish  Sandwich  itself     Nowadays  it  hardly  exists. 

One  comes  again  into  Sandwich  under  the  Barbican  archway.  To 
reach  Peal  ^nd  Walmer,  the  western  members  of  the  Port,  one  passe? 


368  THE  CINQUE  PORTS. 

right  through  the  town.  The  Deal  road  is  in  character  very  like  that 
from  Ramsgate.  If  one  have  the  wind  behind  one,  one  may  with 
advantage  and  pleasure  cover  the  ground,  but  for  some  reason  or 
another  one  never  does  have  the  wind  behind  one.  There  is  even  a 
story  of  an  old  woman  who  started  to  go  this  way,  and  was  much 
incommoded  by  what  one  here  calls  a  tompus,  which  blew  straight  in 
her  face.  Irritated  beyond  the  bounds  of  prudence  and  cool-headedness, 
she  exclaimed,  "  May  the  devil  take  me  if  this  wind  don't  change 
before  I  go  back."  It  did  change,  and  blew  in  her  face  all  the  way 
back  to  Sandwich. 

It  is  pleasanter  to  go  to  Deal  by  way  of  the  Marshes  and  the 
sand-dunes.  Here,  if  one  have  to  contend  with  wind  one  minds 
it  less ;  it  is  more  legitimate,  more  what  one  expects  along  the  sea- 
shore. The  tract  of  country  is  very  similar  in  character  to  that 
near  Camber  and  Rye.  There  are  the  same  dykes,  the  same  low 
cottages,  the  same  sand-hills,  the  same  broad  sky,  and  apparently  the 
same  golfers.  For  the  Royal  and  Ancient  Game  the  country  is  un- 
surpassed. Sandwich,  in  fact,  is  the  St  Andrews  of  the  south,  and 
the  Deal  course  is  by  no  means  despicable.  One  passes  through  the 
latter  before  reaching  Sandown  Castle.  This  building  has  nearly 
succumbed  to  the  sea.  Years  ago  I  used  to  form  one  of  a  band  of 
boyish  treasure  -  seekers  who  wormed  ways  through  half  choked  up 
tunnels.  We  never  found  any  treasures,  but  bats  not  infrequently 
blew  out  our  candles — a  thrilling  experience  in  the  darkness  of  those 
endless,  slimy  tunnels.  But,  to-day,  I  imagine  that  the  passages  are 
finally  choked  up.  The  walls  have  been  demolished  to  a  level  with 
the  abutting  parade,  garden -seats  are  set  upon  them,  and  the  place 
has  lost  all  power  of  historic  suggestion.  When  Colonel  Hutchinson 
was  imprisoned  here,  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  her  son  and  daughter 
"went  to  Deale  and  there  tooke  lodgings,  from  whence  they  walked 
every  day  on  foote  to   dinner  and   back  again   at   night,   with  horrible 


SANDWICH  AND  ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  369 

toyle  and  inconvenience."     Nowadays  one  may  walk  easily  enough  along 
the  smooth  parade. 

Deal  is  a  place  whose  very  name  suggests  storms  and  the  horrors  of 
the  Goodwins.     One  hears  Deal  mentioned  in  London,  and  immediately 
one  sees  the  rush  of  the  angry  sea,   feels  the  swish  of  the  gusty  rain, 
hears   the   distress   guns    from    the    ships    on    the    Sands.      One   seems 
to  look  out,  the   eyes  wrinkled  together,    beneath  a  great,   hairy  hand; 
one  seems   to  wear  a  sou '-wester  and  thigh-high  boots.      The  real  life 
of  the  town   has   been  lived  beneath  the  flying  shrouds  of  rack-clouds, 
in   the   midst    of  spray.     All    this    is    now   very   much   a   matter   of  the 
past.       The    Deal    pilot   is    gone,    the   hovellers    are    fast    disappearing, 
the    Goodwins    have    lost    half   their   terrors.      But    enough    remains    to 
give  the  eastern   end  of  the  town  an  air  of  its  own.      There  are  still 
boats  upon  the    beach,   there  are   still  fishermen   who    smuggle   a   little. 
There  is  even,    I    believe,  a  sardine  factory  ;  and  there  is  still  the  sea. 
The   fishing   quarter    is    still    quaint,    with    its    dark   rows,    its    marine- 
stores,    its    beach    huts,    from    which    peep    unceasingly   the    end    of  the 
hovellers'  telescopes  ;    and   it   is    still  pleasant  to    be    whirled  unsteadily 
by  south-westerly  gusts  between  the  houses  that  crowd  down  on  to  the 
beach  itself. 

Between  Deal  and  Walmer  lies  the  inevitable  lodging  -  house 
quarter,  with  a  fine  parade  and  a  pier,  and  other  necessaries  of  the 
kind.  At  the  western  end  of  this  quarter  stands  Deal  Castle  —  a 
grotesque.  It  is  now  the  residence  of  a  sinecure  Constable.  Beyond 
the  castle,  the  street  falls  back  a  little  from  the  sea;  becomes  a  row 
of  pleasant-looking,  small,  old-fashioned  houses.  These  in  return  give 
place  to  residential  villas,  and  finally  one  reaches  Walmer  Castle.  This 
fortress  has,  since  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  become 
the  residence  of  the  Lords  Warden.  As  such  it  has  housed  some 
notable  men.  One  may  mention  the  celebrated  Lord  North,  who 
aided  George  IIL  in  driving  the  American  Colonies  to  declare  the  War 


2  A 


370  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

of   Independence.      He   was   succeeded    by  William    Pitt,   who   was   ap- 
pointed  Lord  Warden  on  the   i8th  August  1792.      Pitt  seems  to  have 
regarded   his   office   as   by   no   means   a   sinecure.       In    1794   he   raised 
the    famous    body   of    Cinque    Ports    Fencibles,    in    which    he    himself 
enlisted  and  drilled  as  a  private,  and,   somewhat  later,  a  corps  of  bom- 
bardiers  for   the   defence    of    the    three    castles.       Moreover,    in    1803, 
he    armed    almost    all   the   fishing   luggers    within    the    liberties  of  the 
Five    Ports,    giving    them    either    a    twelve-    or    an    eigh teen-pounder 
carronade.      These    boats    saw    a    certain    amount    of    service.      During 
Pitt's  absence  from  Walmer  they  seem  to  have  been  under  the  command 
of  Lady  Hester  Stanhope,  who  would  certainly  have  made  an  excellent 
admiral  of  this,  the  last  of  the  fleets  of  the  Five  Ports.      "We  are  in 
almost  daily  expectation    of  the    arrival    of  the   French,"    she  writes  in 
1804,  "and  Mr.  Pitt's  regiment  is  now  nearly  perfect  enough  to  receive 
them.     We  have  the  famous  15th   Light   Dragoons  in  our  barracks,  also 
the  Northants  and  Berkshire  Militia.      The  first  and  last  of  these  regi- 
ments  I   command.   .  .  .  Oh,  such  miserable  things  as  the  French  gun- 
boats !     We  took  a  vessel  the   other  day  loaded  with  gin — to  keep  up 
their  spirits,    I   suppose ;    another  with  abominable    bread.    .    .    .    One  of 
the    boats    had    an    extreme    large  chest    of  medicine,    probably  for  half 
the    flotilla.      I    have    my    orders   how    to    act  in   case  of  real   alarm   in 
Mr.   Pitt's  absence."  1 

From  December  the  i6th  to  December  19th,  1805,  the  Victory 
lay  off  Walmer  Castle,  jury-masted  and  having  on  board  the  body  of 
Nelson.  In  a  month  Pitt  followed  him  to  his  grave.  Pitt  is  respon- 
sible for  the  present  appearance  of  the  Castle,  which  is  pleasanter  than 
it  might  be,  owing  to  the  trees  and  shrubs  which  Lady  Hester  planted 
to  please  him.  She  is  said  to  have  bribed  a  gardener  to  steal  them 
from  a  neighbouring  park.  Pitt  was  succeeded  by  the  rather  execrable 
Jenkinson,  Earl  of  Liverpool ;  he  in  turn  gave  way  to  the  great  Duke  of 

'  Stanhope  Miscellanies,  2nd  Series. 


H 

< 
o 


SANDWICH  AND   ITS  NEIGHBOURHOOD.  371 

Wellington,  who  became  Lord  Warden  in  1829,  and  died  at  Walmer 
Castle  on  14th  September  1852.  His  room,  with  much  of  the  simple 
furniture  that  he  used,  is  still  to  be  seen  there.  In  1835  the  Duchess  of 
Kent  and  the  Princess  Victoria  visted  the  Duke  at  Walmer,  and  in  1842 
the  Queen  and  the  Prince  Consort  again  came,  her  Majesty  staying 
long  enough  to  contract  a  very  severe  cold,  which  made  her  visit  last 
nearly  a  month.  One  reads  in  Mr  Elvin's  '  Diary  '  of  the  Royal 
visit  that  "a  wandering  lunatic,  calling  himself  Napoleon  III.,  was  in 
the  vicinity  and  desired  admission  to  the  Castle."  This  was  not 
accorded. 

The  Duke  was  succeeded  by  the  Marquis  of  Dalhousie,  Lord 
Palmerston,  Earl  Granville,  Mr  W.  H.  Smith,  the  Marquis  of  Dufferin, 
and  the  present  Lord  Salisbury. 

With  the  end  of  this  outline  tracing  of  the  history  of  Walmer  and 
its  Lords  my  record  of  the  Five  Ports  comes  to  its  close.  If  the 
words  would  come  and  would  dance  themselves  into  metre  one  might 
finish  it  with  a  Ballad  of  Fair  Ships  and  Goodly  Havens.  But  the 
ballad  remains  unwritten.  If,  in  these  days  of  iron  plates,  of  steel 
masts,  of  search-lights,  and  of  whatnot  and  of  whatnot,  one  may  still 
see  visions,  on  this  beach  one  should  see  visions  of  swelling  canvas— one 
should  see  them  merely  for  the  closing  of  the  eyes.  One  should  stand 
on  the  shores  of  the  Downs  and  see  in  the  grey  dawn  the  towering, 
jury-masted  Victory,  and  all  those  others,  slowly  shaking  out  the  in- 
numerable sails,  slowly  passing,  gloriously  passing  away.  They  have 
passed  away  for  ever,  those  towers  along  the  deep  ;  sail  with  La  Blithe 
de  Winchelse  and  La.  Littel  Douce  de  Saundwic  over  glassier  seas, 
into  a  more  golden  twilight.  It  is  inspiring  enough  to  think  of  them 
there,  the  great  ships  of  Trafalgar,  the  small  ships  of  the  Armada,  the 
king-bearing  cock-boats  of  Lespagnols  sur  Mer.  Do  they  find  the 
French  ships  that  went  down  with  them  or  before  them  ;  the  Spaniards 


372  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

that  they  sank  or  that  sank  them  ?  Would  one,  if  for  one  moment 
one  stood  on  the  shores  of  that  sea,  iiear  softly  down  the  waveways 
come  the  cheers  with  which  fair  ship  greets  fair  ship  ;  would  one  see 
their  spars  and  their  sails,  and  their  guns  and  their  spear  points,  all 
agleam,  all  golden  in  a  glory  ?  Sometimes  when  the  dawn  is  reflected 
from  the  older  windows  of  one  of  these  old  towns,  when  the  windows 
throw  back  the  soft,  golden  light,  I  have  thought  that  they  were  gazing 
into  these  further  seas  ;  that  the  old  windows  saw,  the  old  houses 
remembered.  And  I  wonder,  by-the-bye,  if,  when  the  old  Margate  hoy 
sails  into  that  goodly  company,  for  that  too  they  spare  a  few  cheers. 

What  of  the  Future,  then  ?  Is  the  lot  of  the  Ports  to  be  mere 
oblivion  —  a  lasting  sleep?  One  fears  so.  True,  one  reads,  "In 
memoria  aeterna  erit  Justus:  ab  auditione  mala  non  timebit,"  and 
one  hears  that  the  whirligig  of  time  brings  its  revenge.  But  what  wild 
revolutions  can  bring  back  the  glory  of  the  Ports,  what,  in  these  days 
when  the  night  forgets  the  sorrows  of  the  morning,  can  keep  their 
memory  green  ?  The  prophets  of  to-day  tell  us  that  in  a  few  years 
the  sea  itself  will  cease  to  serve  as  a  highway,  as  a  battle-ground — that 
in  a  few  days  the  air  and  the  ships  of  the  air  will  be  all  that  we  shall 
heed.  Thus  ports  all  and  sundry  have  had  their  day,  and  in  due  time 
the  word  itself  will  grow  meaningless.  But  I  have  sometimes  thought 
that,  in  the  end,  a  time  will  come  when  the  brain  of  man — of  humanity 
all  the  world  over — will  suddenly  grow  unable  to  bear  with  the  hurry 
and  turmoil  that  itself  has  created.  Then  it  will  no  longer  seem  worth 
while  to  set  in  motion  all  these  wheels,  all  this  machinery ;  the  fascination 
of  the  slow,  creaking  waggons  of  the  past  will  grow  overpowering,  the 
claims  of  the  simple  will  be  rediscovered,  will  be  deemed  something 
new,  strange,  and  enthralling.  Then,  the  naive  and  the  human  will 
reign  again,  the  Makeshift  even  will  have  its  principality.  In  that  new 
Golden  Age  the  Five  Ports  might  again  flourish,  might  again  find 
their  account. 


APPENDIX    A. 

ORIGINS    OF   THE   PORTS. 

Though  in  outline  the  evolution  of  the  system  seems  simple  enough,  as  soon  as 
one  descends  to  more  detailed  consideration  one  is  met  with  the  clash  and  whir  of 
innumerable  theories.  It  is  not  only  matter  of  doubt  whether  the  Saxons  inherited 
the  traditions  of  the  Ports  from  the  Romans,  but  it  is  also  extremely  difficult  to 
identify  the  Roman  stations.  Near  the  port  of  Sandwich  were  the  two  Rutupine 
castles  :  Dover  Castle  was  probably  Dubris  or  Darvenum,  Lympne  near  Hythe  was 
certainly  the  Portus  Lemanis,  Hastings  may  conceivably  have  been  Othona,  and 
Pevensey  Anderida.  Thus  five  out  of  the  nine  castles  under  the  Roman  Count  were 
very  possibly  within  what  became  the  Liberties  of  the  Ports.  Four  of  them  very 
certainly  were  within  the  tract  of  land.  This  to  some  extent  tells  in  favour  of  the 
theory  of  Roman  origin.  On  the  other  hand  the  methods  of  maintenance  of  the 
castles  of  the  tractus  maritimus,  which  later  became  the  Saxon  Shore,  were  widely 
different  from  those  which  distinguished  the  Five  Ports.  The  Comes  was  a  military 
commander  having  under  him  nine  captains,  each  of  whom  commanded  200  men. 
These  legionaries  were  mostly  drawn  from  Gaul  and  the  Rhenish  provinces,  whereas 
the  keynote  of  the  Cinque  Ports  edifice  was  the  local  origin  of  its  defenders.  More- 
over, there  is  no  trace  to  be  found  of  any  special  naval  force  that  was  under  the 
Comes.  Yet,  as  one  passes  from  Cinque  Port  to  Cinque  Port  and  finds  almost 
invariably  in  close  proximity  one  of  the  castles  of  the  Saxon  Shore,  one  is  inclined 
to  fall  under  the  conviction  that  some  connection  must  have  obtained.  Moreover, 
there  were  two  places  outside  the  counties  of  Kent  and  Sussex  owing  allegiance 
to  the  Cinque  Ports.  There  were  Brightlingsea  in  Essex,  which  remains  a  member 
of  Sandwich,  and  the  famous  town  of  Yarmouth.  Yarmouth,  indeed,  owed  its  very 
existence  to  the  herring-fishers  of  the  Ports.  Both  these  towns  certainly  had  a 
Roman  predecessor.  Brightlingsea  may  or  may  not  have  been  the  Saxon-Shore 
castle  of  Othona  but  it  was  Roman  in  origin  ;  Yarmouth  certainly  was  intimately 
connected  with  the  most  northerly  castle  of  the  Roman  county. 

2  B 


374  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

There  is  a  principle  of  French  criminal  law  which  has  it  that  a  frequent 
succession  of  "  coincidences  of  probability "  may  be  regarded  as  a  proof  of  guilt ; 
and  I  must  confess  that  this  sequence  of  probability  does  something  to  convince 
me  of  the  "  Roman  connection."  That  many  of  the  Ports  should  have  grown  up 
near  Roman  castles  is  easily  explainable  without  any  reference  to  Roman  origin. 
The  Saxons  wished  for  positions  similar  to  those  that  the  Romans  selected  for 
similar  ends.  But  when  we  find  that  the  Ports  had  control  of  a  town  that  grew 
up  near  a  very  distant  castle  of  the  tractus  maritimus,  and  when  we  consider  that 
there  were  in  all  probability  many  other  places  on  the  East  Coast  that  would  have 
served  the  turn  of  net-drying,  the  matter  seems  to  fall  much  further  within  the 
sphere  dominated  by  "  coincidences  of  probability."  One  must  remember  that  the 
late  fallacy  which  prompted  easily  satisfied  topographers  to  claim  a  Roman  origin 
for  almost  every  town  in  the  wide  world  caused  an  almost  equally  unreasonable 
reaction,  a  reaction  that  made  subsequent  writers  deny  a  Latin  origin  to  places 
in  which  every  trace  of  Roman  occupation  was  to  be  found.  At  the  same  time 
I  remember  that  biographers  and  writers  on  historical  subjects  are  very  prone  to 
be  led  away  by  enthusiasm  for  the  men  or  places,  or  for  the  organisations  in 
whose  service  their  pens  are  employed  ;  and  although  I  should  like  to  claim  so 
respectable  an  antiquity  for  the  organisation  of  the  Five  Ports,  I  prefer  to  con- 
tent myself  with  summing  up  the  rather  scanty  evidence  on  the  points. 

If  we  accept  the  "  Roman  origin  "  theory — which,  however,  I  cannot  bring 
myself  to  do — we  may  consider  that  the  Ports  were  definitely  established  at  the 
time  of  the  Heptarchy  ;  if  not,,  we  have  to  search  further  afield  to  find  their 
commencements.  It  seems  probable  that,  round  the  Roman  castles,  there  grew 
up  Saxon  towns.  Legend  asserts  that  the  Saxon  kings  of  Kent  had  their  palace 
in  the  castle  of  Richborough,  and  that  the  illustrious  towns  of  Sandwich  and 
Stonor  grew  up  under  the  shadows  of  the  walls,  under  the  auspices  of  the  race 
of  Ethelbert.  The  Saxons,  like  their  predecessors,  had  to  contend  with  naval 
freebooters  who  subsequently  became  invaders.  At  what  stage  of  the  process 
the  Cinque  Ports  first  afforded  ship-service  one  does  not  know.  Ethelred  the 
Unready  is  usually  credited  with  the  invention  of  the  Danegelt  —  a  tax  which 
had  for  its  aim  the  provision  of  an  effective  navy.  He  may  have  found  the 
system  in  force  within  the  Ports,  or  the  Ports  may  have  been  left  outside  the  act 
by  which  the  Confessor  abolished  the  Danegelt  itself.  It  is,  however,  to  some 
extent  significant  that  Ethelred's  great  fleet  should  have  assembled  in  the  haven 
of  Sandwich,  a  place  which  under  the  Saxon  kings  seems  to  have  had  the  leader- 
ship of  the  Ports. 

In  speaking  of  the   Ports  in  pre-Norman   times   one   is   much   hampered   by 


APPENDIX.  375 

absolute  lack  of  evidence:  not  one  of  the  rather  few  and  frequently  dubious 
Saxon  charters  that  have  been  handed  down  to  us  concerns  itself  with  the  ship- 
service  of  the  Port  towns.  Edward  I.'s  general  charter  to  the  Ports  speaks  of 
"their  liberties  and  freedoms  as  the  same  charters  (of  Edward  the  Confessor, 
William  I.,  &c.),  .  .  .  rvhich  the  same  Barons  have  there,  and  which  we  have 
seen,  do  reasonably  testify." 

Thus,  if  we  regard  the  statement  that  "  we  have  seen  the  charter  of  Edward  " 
as  more  than  merely  formal,  we  arrive  at  the  fact  that  the  Confessor  granted  a 
general  charter  to  the  Ports,  or  at  least  a  batch  of  separate  ones  to  individual 
ports.  This  brings  us  at  once  to  another  debatable  point.  There  is  little  doubt 
that  before  the  Conquest  the  several  Ports  found  ships  and  had  privileges,  but 
there  is,  except  for  the  ambiguous  sentence  above  quoted,  nothing  to  prove  that 
the  Ports  were,  before  the  Conquest,  parts  of  the  great  Confederation  that  they 
subsequently  became.  Very  excellent  judges  have  held  that  it  was  the  Conqueror 
who  put  the  finishing  touches  to  the  work  of  the  Confessor.  To  me,  however,  it 
seems  that  the  weight  of  the  inferential  evidence  tells  in  the  other  scale  of  the 
balance ;  I  am  even  inclined  to  think  that  the  Confessor — a  personage  for  whom  I 
entertain  a  temperamental,  and  possibly  quite  unjust,  dislike — had  very  little  to  do 
with  the  making  of  the  Ports.  What  has  most  struck  me  in  writing  the  history 
of  individual  Ports  has  been  to  how  very  great  an  extent  their  earliest  prosperity 
depended  on  the  fact  that  they  nearly  all  lived  under  the  auspices  of  the  Church — 
that  they  owed,  in  fact,  much  of  their  prosperity  to  their  dependence  on  one  religious 
establishment,  that  of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury.  Romney,  Hythe,  Dover,  and 
Sandwich  were  all,  at  different  times  and  in  varying  degrees,  tributary  to  this  great 
institution,  and  as  such  they  were  all,  more  or  less,  under  the  government  of  the 
archbishops,  who  were  titular  abbots  of  Christ  Church.  It  is  significant  that 
Hastings,  the  one  Port  which  fell  to  foreign  Priors,  was  the  earliest  in  decline. 

Like  the  Church,  the  confederation  of  the  Ports  remained  for  centuries  an 
imperium  in  imperio ;  as  in  the  case  of  the  Church,  their  corporate  head,  though 
elected  by  the  sovereign,  had  to  conciliate  the  barons  by  swearing  to  maintain 
intact  their  liberties  and  their  privileges.  Of  these,  like  the  Church,  they  were 
excessively  tenacious.  Going  back,  then,  to  Saxon  times,  it  behoves  us  to  find 
the  man  who  gave  the  Church  its  traditions,  and  him  I  think  we  find  in  Dunstan, 
the  tenth-century  archbishop  and  saint.  Of  his  vigorous  and  successful  attempts 
to  consolidate  the  properties  of  his  see,  and  incidentally  of  Christ  Church,  we 
find  recurrent  evidence  in  the  annals  of  the  ports  I  have  mentioned.  He  was 
certainly .  clear-sighted  enough  to  see  that,  for  the  see  of  Canterbury  to  remain 
prosperous  and  to  maintain  its  rights,  the  dependencies  of  that  see  must  do  as 


376  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

much.  He  had,  too,  the  especial  advantage  of  having  his  sovereign  completely 
under  his  thumb,  and  it  is  to  him  rather  than  to  the  Confessor  that  I  should  be 
inclined  to  attribute  the  rights  of  the  Ports.  Many  characteristics  of  the  Ports' 
privileges  are  essentially  Anglo-Saxon,  but  the  trend  of  the  policy  of  the  Confessor 
was  altogether  Norman  in  inspiration.  The  only  actions  of  his  that  we  know  of 
as  directly  affecting  the  Ports  are  his  abolition  of  the  Dane  Gelt  tax,  and  his 
oppression  of  the  men  of  Dover  whom  Earl  Godwin  upheld. 

Dunstan,  on  the  other  hand,  was  in  every  way  interested  in  the  prosperity  of 
the  towns  in  question,  and  that  the  earlier  archbishops  did  everything  in  their 
power  to  further  the  prosperity  of  these  towns  we  have  seen,  Hastings,  it  is  true, 
remained  outside  the  influence  of  Dunstan,  and  was,  with  the  nobiliora  membra, 
Winchelsea  and  Rye,  granted  to  the  monks  of  Fecamp ;  but  it  is  unlikely  that 
these  monks  would  have  been  content  to  allow  their  towns  to  labour  under  com- 
parative disadvantages,  and  the  Confessor,  as  we  know,  was  open  to  the  influencing 
of  foreign  priests.  The  Ports  certainly  sided  with  St  Thomas  against  Henry  H., 
and,  like  a  straw  that  shows  the  way  of  the  wind,  we  find  that  after  the  coronation 
of  Richard  I.,  the  archbishop  offered  on  the  shrine  of  the  Blessed  Thomas  a 
singularly  large  horn  of  ivory  that  the  king  had  given  him.  At  the  same  time 
the  barons  of  the  Ports  laid  on  the  altar  of  Christ  the  pall  which  they  had  held 
over  the  king  at  his  coronation.  Now  a  horn  is  the  signum  prcetorianuni  of  incor- 
poration. I  may,  however,  be  quite  wrong  in  my  interpretation — may  be  merely 
catching  at  straws  ;  and  it  must  be  remembered  that  I  can  offer  no  documentary 
evidence  in  favour  of  the  "  Dunstan  "  or  Archiepiscopal  theory ;  and,  too,  it  must 
be  remembered  that  against  it  there  is  the  inspexiinus  of  Edward  I. 

We  come  then  to  the  days  of  the  Conquest.  It  is  not  a  little  curious,  and 
it  will  probably  remain  permanently  inexplicable,  that  the  Ports,  with  the  exception 
of  Romney,  offered  no  sort  of  resistance  to  the  Conqueror.  It  becomes  even  the 
more  incomprehensible  when  we  remember  that  the  Ports  owed  peculiar  allegiance 
to  Harold  as  the  son  of  Godwin  the  great  Earl  of  Kent.  The  only  tenable  theories 
are  either  that  the  Ports  had  previously  compounded  with  the  Conqueror,  or  that 
Harold  had  drawn  off  all  their  available  fighting  strength.  The  latter  seems  the 
more  probable.  According  to  modern  theories,  the  troops  with  which  Harold  fought 
the  battle  of  Hastings  were  his  Huscarles  and  a  hasty  levy  of  such  men  as  were 
either  in  the  neighbourhood  or  for  other  reasons  had  time  to  reach  his  standard. 
In  the  number  of  both  sorts  the  men  of  the  Ports  must  have  bulked  largely.  It 
seems  likely,  therefore,  that  the  towns  of  the  confederation  offered  no  resistance 
simply  because  they  had  no  means  of  so  doing.  Once  they  had  accepted  the 
Conqueror's  yoke  tiiey  served  him  faithfully,  beating  off  the  Danes  who  came  to 


APPENDIX. 


377 


the  assistance  of  the  English,  and  offering  no  help  to  Eustace  of  Boulogne  when  he 
made  his  perfunctory  attack  upon  Dover  Castle. 

It  is  doubtful  to  what  extent,  if  any,  the  Conqueror  modified  the  existing 
arrangements  of  the  Ports.  To  him  ^  is  popularly  attributed  the  establishment  of 
the  Feudal  System  in  England.  But  upon  the  whole  neither  he  nor  his  imme- 
diate predecessors  appear  to  have  attached  any  special  importance  to  the  Cinque 
Ports.  His  government,  as  far  as  one  knows,  was  essentially  military  rather  than 
essentially  naval,  and  he  seems  to  have  regarded  the  confederacy  rather  as  an 
instrument  for  keeping  in  check  what  piracy  there  was  in  a  Norman  arm  of  the 
sea  than  as  a  first  line  of  defence.  Nevertheless  he  respected  the  Ports 
sufficiently  to  confirm  them  in  their  privileges.  Of  the  vexed  question  of  the 
origin  of  the  Wardenship  we  know  as  little  as  of  other  vexed  questions  of 
origin. 

It  seems  probable  that  Earl  Godwin  and,  after  him,  Odo  of  Baieux  were  what 
one  might  call  "Wardens  by  prescription" — Wardens  as  territorial  Earls  of  Kent. 
But  this  is  mere  matter  of  conjecture.  The  Conqueror  is  said,  by  moderately  trust- 
worthy authorities,  to  have  nominated,  as  Warden  of  the  Ports,  James,  first  Lord 
Fienes.  This  official  gained  added  local  importance  from  the  fact  that  he  became 
simultaneously  Constable  of  Dover  Castle.  His  appointment  differed  from  that  of 
really  representative  subsequent  Wardens  in  being  hereditary.  William,  in  fact, 
we  may  consider  as  having  relegated  to  a — possibly  fictitious — person  a  part  of 
the  rights  of  an  earldom  of  Kent,  a  vice  -  regency  that  he  had  found  it  better 
to  dismantle. 

I  have  now  examined  with  some  care  the  various  earlier  theories  as  to  the 
origin  of  the  Ports.  I  had  long  ago  held  the  following  ideas  more  or  less  vaguely 
before  me :  We  have  no  general  charter  to  the  confederation  earlier  than  that  of 
the  6th  Ed.  I. ;  the  wording  of  the  "  inspeximuses "  in  this  charter  is  rather  easy 
to  misunderstand  ;  the  kings  up  to  the  time  of  Edward  invariably  granted  separate 
charters  to  the  individual  ports.  From  these  facts  I  evolved  the  theory  that  the 
Ports  were  not  incorporated  as  a  whole  before  the  reign  of  Edward  I.  This  was 
some  few  years  ago.  Shortly  afterwards  I  came  upon  Mr  Round's  chapter  on  the 
"  Cinque  Ports  Charters."     In  this  he  advances  practically  the  same  reasons  for  the 

'  This,  however,  is  again  a  debatable  matter.     Pro-  Introduction  of  Knight  Service  into  England '  observes  : 

fessor    Freeman    thinks    that    the    system   of  knight  "When  we  find  them  and  their  descendants  holdmg 

service  which,  speaking  loosely,  one  calls  the  Feudal  their  fiefs  in  England  as  they  had  been  held  m  Nor- 

System,    "was   devised   on   English    ground  by   the  mandy  .  .  .  what  is  the  simple  and  obvious  mference 

malignant  genius  of  the  minister  (Ranulph  Flambard)  but  that  .  .  .  Duke  William  granted  out  the  fiefs  he 

of  Rufus."     Mr  Round,  however,  on  p.  25  of  his  '  The  found  in  England?  " 


378  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

same  belief,  and,  upon  the  whole,  until  documentary  evidence  of  a  previous  charter 
turns  up,  this  is  the  soundest  theory  that  one  can  hold. 

To  this  theory  the  objections  which  have  occurred  to  me  are  as  follows: 
Edward's  charter  says :  "  Et  quod  non  placitentur  nisi  ubi  debuerunt,  et  ubi  solebant, 
scilicet,  apud  shipweiam."  This  seems  to  indicate  that  the  men  of  the  Ports  did 
have  a  general  court— that  at  Shepway— before  the  granting  of  the  charter — and 
if  they  had  a  general  court  they  must  have  been  incorporated  in  one  way  or 
another.  Mr  Round,  however,  under  the  page  heading  "Barons  of  the  Cinque 
Ports,"  and  whilst  pointing  out  that  the  men  of  Hastings  were  the  only  ones  in 
previous  charters  styled  barons,  says  very  justly  :  "  It  is  always,  in  these  matters, 
necessary  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  local  organisation  was  apt  to  be  ahead  of  the 
Crown,  and  the  communal  institutions  and  municipal  developments  might  be 
winked  at  for  a  time,  to  avoid  formal  recognition.  In  this  way,  I  believe,  the 
rights  and  privileges  belonging  in  strictness  to  Hastings  alone  were  gradually 
extended  in  practice  to  the  other  ports ;  there  is,  for  instance,  a  St  Bertin  charter 
granted  by  the  so-called  'Barons  of  Dover,'  although  the  formal  legend  on  their 
seal  styles  them  only  Burgesses"  ('Feudal  England,'  pp.  566,  567). 

The  acceptance  of  what  I  will  call  the  "Edward  I.  theory"  immensely  com- 
plicates the  theory  of  the  Ports'  organisation.  We  are  almost  forced  to  the 
acceptance  of  Mr  Round's  views  that  the  custumals  and  so  forth  of  the  indi- 
vidual ports  were  of  French  origin — were,  at  least,  strongly  modified  by  clauses 
borrowed  from  the  communes  of  Picardy.  This  latter  seems  the  most  satis- 
factory view  of  the  matter.  There  seem  to  me  to  be  several  valid  objections 
to  the  theory  that  the  ports  borrowed  their  constitutions  bodily  from  the 
French.  In  the  first  place  many  of  the  enactments  of  the  custumals  are 
undoubtedly  of  Anglo-Saxon  origin.  (One  may  mention  the  comparative  liberty 
of  women  under  the  Winchelsea  custumals  —  a  custumal  that  must  have  been 
directly  sanctioned  by  Edward  I.)  The  specimens  of  custumals  that  we  now 
possess  are  unquestionably  of  comparatively  late  date.  (Mr  Round  quotes  that 
given  in  Boys'  'Sandwich,'  a  custumal  that,  I  should  think,  is  not  so  old  as 
those  of  Winchelsea  and  Romney.)  That  the  custumals  underwent  modification 
in  late  days  is  certain ;  that  they  should  have  escaped  it  before  the  charter  of 
Edward  I.  is  most  unlikely.  But  it  is  even  more  unlikely  that  any  king  could 
have  imposed  upon  towns  so  powerful  as  the  Five  Ports  a  set  of  entirely  new 
custumals  entailing  all  the  inconveniences  of  new  habits  and  a  foreign  trend 
of  thought.  Again,  stress  has  been  laid  upon  the  fact  that  the  whole  con- 
federation has  been  named  "Cinque" — a  French  word.  Against  this  one  may 
urge  the  fact  that  the  names  of  the  courts  administering  the  internal  affairs  of 


APPENDIX. 


?>79 


the  Ports  were  all  of  Teutonic  derivation.  They  were :  Shepway,  Brodhull,  and 
Guestling.  Now  a  Teutonic  survival  in  days  when  French  was  the  polite  lan- 
guage would  obviously  raise  a  French  name  or  nickname,  just  as  a  German 
Schmidt  inevitably  gets  styled  Smith  if  he  takes  up  his  residence  in  England. 
I  may  be  called  a  German — but,  to  ascertain  whether  I  were  German  or  not,  it 
would  be  necessary  to  discover  whether  I  called  my  account-books,  my  game- 
keeper, or  my  dogs  by  an  English  or  a  German  name. 

The  word  commune  in  connection  with  Picardy  suggests  another  train  of 
thought  to  me.  It  may  be  worth  calling  to  mind  that  a  very  exact  parallel 
to  the  organisation  of  the  Ports  long  existed  on  the  southern  borders  of  Russia, 
and  still  exists  along  the  Central  Asiatic  roads  to  Siberia.  I  refer  to  the  settle- 
ments of  Cossacks — settlements  which  were  and  are  strictly  communistic  in  the 
modern  acceptation  of  the  word.  Mutatis  mutandis,  their  general  characteristics 
of  organisation  seem  to  me  to  be  almost  as  close  in  resemblance  to  the 
organisation  of  the  Ports  as  were  those  of  the  communes  of  Picardy.^  Stated 
in  brief  their  duties  were  :  to  protect  the  borders,  occasionally  of  Poland,  but 
generally  of  Great  Russia,  against  the  invasions  of  freebooters ;  for  this  purpose 
they  were  bound  to  find  a  stated  number  of  horses  and  accoutrements,  these 
horses,  &c.,  in  times  of  peace  being  used  for  the  purposes  of  the  community. 
In  return  they  were  (and  are  in  so  far  as  the  oath  of  a  Czar  secures  it  them) 
accorded  absolute  self-government  and  definite  trading  and  territorial  rights.^ 
Now  I  must,  of  course,  not  be  regarded  as  wishing  to  imply  that  the  Ports 
derived  their  organisation  from  the  Cossacks  of  the  Ural,  or  the  Cossacks  from 
the  Ports.  But  I  wish  to  emphasise  the  fact  that  the  general  evolution  of  the 
Ports  was  so  simple  and  so  severely  logical  that  it  is  not  absolutely  necessary 
to  go  for  a  parallel  to  a  land  where  they  may  or  may  not  manage  things  better. 

At  the  same  time  it  must  be  remembered  that  Edward  I.,  who  certainly 
modified  to  some  extent  the  existing  organisation  of  the  Ports,  had  a  special 
interest  in  Picardy  itself,  and  it  is  at  least  excessively  likely  that  he  made  altera- 
ations  in  the  constitution  of  the  Ports,  modifications  that  to  some  extent  assimilated 
them  with  the  existing  communes  of  Picardy. 

If,  then,  we  examine  the  organisation  of  the  Ports  in  the  light  of  the  "Edward 
I.  theory,"  we  find  it  somewhat  as  follows :  Up  till  the  time  of  Edward's  charter 
it  had  consisted  of  a  more  or  less  unofficially  connected  congregation  at  first  of 
five,  afterwards  of  seven,  towns.     These  towns  had  each  identical  duties  to  per- 

'  Mr  Burrows  brings  forward  his  objections  to  Mr       the  Cossacks  will  be  found  in  vol.  xiii.  of  Andrievski's 
Round's  theory  in  the  '  Archaiological  Rev.,'  iv.  CyclopEedia. 

'^  The  general  facts  relating  to  the  organisation  of 


38o  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

form,  and  received  identical  privileges  in  return.  From  amongst  these  towns 
stood  out  that  of  Hastings.  For  one  reason  or  another  this  Port  undoubtedly 
seems  to  have  held  special  privileges.  Mr  Round  has  convincingly  pointed  out 
that,  before  the  time  of  Edward  I.,  Hastings  undoubtedly  had  sole  control  of  the 
Yarmouth  fishery,  that,  as  I  have  mentioned,  the  burgesses  of  Hastings  alone 
had  the  right  to  style  themselves  barons.  In  partial  refutation  of  this  latter  theory 
we  have,  however,  the  fact  that  Bracton's  "  Breve  de  generali  summonitione  in 
itinere,"  &c.  (which  I  append  in  full),  addressed  to  the  bailiffs  of  Hastings,  says  : 
"  Et  illuc  tunc  venire  faciatis  24  de  legalioribus  et  discretioribus  baronibus  de 
Hastings  et  alios  sicut  venire  solent','  %lc.}  concludes  in  the  following  words  with 
regard  to  the  other  Ports :  "  Eodem  modo  et  per  eadem  verba  scribatur  balliuis  de 
Romual,  b.  de  Heya,  b.  de  Doure,  et  b.  de  Sandwyz." 

Henry  HI.  granted  a  series  of  identical  charters  to  each  of  the  Five  Ports 
and  to  the  two  Antient  Towns — Edward  I.,  carrying  the  process  of  unification  one 
step  further  forward,  granted  one  charter  to  the  whole  confederation.  At  some 
period  took  place  the  "levelling  up"  process  that  put  the  rest  of  the  Ports  on 
a  par  with  Hastings,  but  left  to  Hastings  a  more  or  less  nominal  precedence. 
The  annus  quadragesimus  quartus  of  Henry  HI.  brings  us  very  close  to  the 
times  of  the  battle  of  Lewes — up  to  the  year  succeeding  that  of  the  Provisions 
of  Oxford.  At  that  date,  as  Mr  Round  suggests,  the  barons  of  Hastings,  and 
probably  too  those  of  the  other  ports,  considered  themselves  as  on  a  par  with 
the  barons  of  the  Realm.  They  probably  then  extorted  confirmation  of  such 
privileges  as,  in  times  before,  they  had  assumed  without  royal  warrant. 

This  point,  I  think,  should  be  strongly  insisted  upon.  What  Edward  did  was 
not  entirely  to  reorganise  the  structure  of  the  Ports.  The  barons  themselves  had 
been  doing  that  in  the  years  that  went  before.  They  had  undoubtedly  united 
the  Ports  into  one  whole,  and  this  prescriptive  union  Edward  did  little  more  than 
ratify.  How  much  more  he  did  in  the  direction  of  assimilating  the  custumals  of 
the  Portsmen  to  those  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  towns  of  Picardy  it  is  difficult  to 
say,  or  to  feel  assured  of     An  exceedingly  habile  man  in  matters  of  the  sort,  he 

'  The  antiquity  of  this  form   of  writ  is  proved  by  its  rights  at  Yarmouth,  of  which  there  is  no  mention 

the   fact   that   the   barons   are   summoned   before  the  in  the  charters  of  the  other  Ports.     I  have  noticed  in 

King's  Justices  in  Eyre.     This  practice,  at  the  request  the  same  cartulary  (Galba,  E)  an  interesting  confirma- 

of  the  Barons,  was  abolished  by  Henry  III.,  "anno  tion  by  Henry  II.  to  the  abbey  of  the  land  :  "  Quam 

regni  sui  quadragesimo  quarto."    The  principal  heads  Ufwinus  et  Robertus  presbyteri,  et  Bonifacius  et  ceteri 

of  Mr   Round's  arguments  may  be  cited  as  follows  :  barones  mei  de  Haslingges  eidem  ecclesie  dederunt  in 

Henry  II. 's  charter  treats  the  barons  of  Hastings  as  Gernemunt  apud   Den  .   .   .  Test.    Than.    canuUario. 

alone  responsible  for  the  Yarmouth  fishery:  they  are  Apud  Westmar."     The  name  of  Thomas  fixes  the  date 

mentioned  in  a  writ  of  Henry  II.  relating  to  Yar-  as  not  later  than  1158,     (F.  E.,  p.  561,  note.) 
mouth,  &c.     John's  charter  to  Hastings  duly  mentions 


APPENDIX.  381 

may  very  easily  have  imposed  his  will  in  that  matter.  He  may  have  made  such 
modifications  the  price  of  his  ratifications  of  the  Portsmen's  aggressions.  On  the 
other  hand  the  changes  may  have  been  brought  about  by  internal  processes,  .  .  . 
by  the  immigration  of  foreigners,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Commune  of  London.  In 
any  case  the  charter  of  Edward  I.  must  be  regarded  as  marking  the  turning-point 
of  the  history  of  the  Cinque  Ports. 

This  may,  I  think,  be  regarded  as  a  reasonably  sober  statement  of  the  theories 
that  it  is  safe  for  a  man  to  hold  who  is  not  a  specialist  in  such  matters.  It  reveals 
an  organisation  having  a  certain  purpose,  not  founded  as  a  whole  by  any  one 
king  or  legislator,  but  arising  to  fill  a  definite  gap  in  the  fabric  of  the  nation. 
This  organisation  changed  slowly  as  different  modes  of  thought  prevailed  in  the 
nation  at  large,  but  generally  maintained  the  sourest  of  the  characteristics  that 
it  had  possessed  in  the  ages  preceding.  Thus,  throughout  its  upward  growth, 
its  distinguishing  quality  was  a  certain  handiness,  an  adaptability  to  surrounding 
circumstances.  This  very  quality  we  must  regard  as  the  salt,  still  keeping  fresh 
our  national  life. 

It  is  indeed  significant  that,  almost  immediately  after  the  confederation  was 
finally  moulded  it  began  to  decline.  It  had  become  a  magnificent  organisation, 
but  it  had  taken  to  itself  a  rigidity  to  which  was  due  its  ultimate  disappearance. 
Had  it  had  in  it  merely  Anglo-Saxon  potentialities  it  must  have  disappeared  at 
the  Conquest;  had  it  become  merely  Norman-French  it  must  have  gone  under 
with  the  Angevins.  It  survived  to  the  days  of  Edward  I.,  a  great  king  with  marked 
tendencies  of  his  own  and  a  will  to  impose  them.  The  law-giver  contrived,  partly 
of  his  own  strength,  partly  by  skilfully  guiding  the  turbulent  aspirations  of  the 
barons,  to  stamp  it  definitely  ...  as  a  medieval  institution.  Then  it  did  glorious 
things.  It  continued  to  do  them  for  just  so  long  as  it  remained  in  accord  with 
the  spirit  of  the  age.  But  all  the  while  it  was  dying  gradually  of  a  kind  of  dry- 
rot.  It  was  as  if  a  great  fortress-builder  had  fashioned,  out  of  a  great  tree-trunk 
forming  part  of  his  palisade,  a  magnificent  beam  to  fulfil  the  same  purpose.  It 
fulfilled  it  a  little  better,  fell  better  into  line  with  a  smooth  front,  ...  but  its 
growth  and  life  were  over  and  done  with. 


382  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 


APPENDIX    B. 

THE   NORFOLK   AND   SUFFOLK    FISHERIES,    YARMOUTH, 
DUNWICH,   Etc. 

The  origin  of  these  fisheries,  the  rights  of  Den  and  Strond,  &c.,  though  docu- 
mentarily  obscure,  is  comprehensible  enough.  The  fishermen  of  Hastings,  and, 
later,  of  all  the  Ports,  were  accustomed  to  pursue  the  herrings  up  into  the  North 
Sea.  They  found  it  convenient  to  have  pieds-a-terre  where  they  could  dry  their 
nets  and  so  on.  These  they  found  on  the  shingle  and  mudbanks  at  the  mouth 
of  the  river  Yare,  and  possibly  on  those  that  may  have  existed  off  the  coast  of 
Dunwich.  In  the  course  of  time  they  erected  huts  which  they  tenanted  at 
certain  seasons  of  the  year.  Later,  their  yearly  visits  led  to  the  holding  of 
fishery-fairs.  The  barons  of  Hastings,  and  later,  of  all  the  Ports,  claimed,  on 
account  of  their  (at  first  prescriptive,  afterwards  confirmed)  territorial  rights,  the 
regulation  of  these  fairs  and  the  fair- dues.  As,  however,  the  town  of  Yarmouth 
grew  up  around  the  huts  of  the  Portsmen,  the  growing  population  of  Yarmouth 
felt  less  and  less  inclined  to  submit  to  the  rather  exigeant  rule  of  the  barons  of 
the  Ports.  As  a  result,  constant  friction  arose  between  the  men  of  the  Five 
Ports  and  those  of  Yarmouth.  Fairly  early  we  find  the  barons  of  Hastings 
carrying  on  an  irregular  warfare  with  the  Norfolk  fishermen,  later,  the  Portsmen 
actually  massacred  the  crews  of  the  Yarmouth  ships  under  the  eyes  of  the  king. 
The  various  kings  who  concerned  themselves  with  these  matters  seem,  as  a  rule, 
to  have  sided  with  the  Portsmen,  to  have  assured  them  of  support  for  their  pre- 
tensions, for  their  rights.  But,  as  the  strength  of  the  Ports  gradually  decayed, 
the  Yarmouth  men  grew  too  strong  for  them,  and  the  rights  of  the  Ports  were 
gradually  allowed  to  lapse.  In  1663  the  barons  finally  abandoned  their  claims, 
and  never  again  went  to  the  "  Free  Fayer "  of  Yarmouth,  where  for  many  cen- 
turies they  had  kept  open  house. 


APPENDIX.  383 


APPENDIX    C. 

THE   COURTS. 

The  constitution  of  the  Courts  of  Shepway  has  already  to  some  extent  appeared. 
Originally  it  was  held  by  the  King's  Justices,  but  eventually  by  the  Lords  Warden 
themselves.  From  it  there  was  no  appeal.  This  conferring  of  judicial  powers  on 
the  Wardens  was  the  final  touch  that  was  needed  to  make  the  Ports  what  I  have 
called  an  imperium  in  imperio.  But  it  soon  began  to  bear  more  or  less  evil  re- 
sults. There  was  a  continual,  though  a  continually  resisted,  tendency  for  the 
Lords  Warden  to  become  to  some  extent  autocratic  in  the  courts.  This  led  to 
a  growth  of  the  courts  called  Brodhulls.  (Mr  Burrows  derives  the  name  from  a 
Broadhill,  near  Dymchurch.)  Here  matters  between  Port  and  Port  -^  internal 
matters — were  settled  by  the  Portsmen.  The  Court  of  Shepway,  broadly  speak- 
ing, concerned  itself  with  foreign  relations — with  offences  against  the  men  of  the 
Ports  and  with  offences  that  the  Portsmen  committed  against  foreigners.  The 
Lords  Warden  were  empowered  to  hold  courts  of  inquiry  in  the  individual 
Ports — but  before  this  tribunal  the  Portsmen  were  at  first  not  bound  to  plead 
without  their  towns.^  Here  again  the  tendency  of  the  Wardens'  power  was  to 
override  the  constitution  of  the  Ports.  The  Courts  of  Shepway  began  to  be  held 
at  Dover,  and  thither  the  inquiries  followed  them.  This  was  occasionally  rather 
desirable :  at  times  local  feeling  ran  rather  high,  and  the  Wardens  found  it  im- 
possible to  hold  a  court  in  the  home-port  of  offenders.  Thus  little  by  httle 
these  courts  found  a  home  at  Dover.  The  Guestlings — which  may  or  may  not 
have  taken  their  name  from  the  village  between  Hastings  and  Winchelsea— 
regulated  all  matters  of  supply  and  were  independent  of  the  Wardens.  They 
decreed  what  contribution  each  Port  was  to  make  to  the  expenses  of  the  year 
at  the  Yarmouth  fair,  and  elsewhere. 

1  See  pp.  38s,  386. 


384  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 


APPENDIX    D. 

SELECTED  SPECIMENS  OF  WRITS  OF  SUMMONS  TO  THE  COURTS;  OF 
REPORTS  OF  PROCEDURE  IN  THE  MATTER  OF  THE  PRIVILEGES  OF 
THE   PORTS,   Etc. 

The  Writ  of  Summons  to  the  Court  of  Shepway,  given  by  Bracton,  De  Legibus, 
&c.,  Lib.  III.,  De  Corona,  is  as  follows: — 

"  Breve  de  generali  summonitione  in  itinere  institiarioru.  itinerantiu.  apud  Shipwey 
in  €0711.  Kane,  infra  libertatem  quinque  portmim.  Item  capitula  2.  Breve  Vic. 
Norff.  et  Suff.  t  scire  faciat.  hominibus  in  lermewe  et  Donewig.     Cap.  2. 

"  Rex  dilectis  and  fidelibus  suis  balliuis  de  Hastings  salutem.  Praecipim  vobis 
quod  omni  occasione  postposita,  sitis  apud  Shipwey  ad  talem  diem  coram  dilectis 
et  fidelibus  nostris  talibus,  et  illuc  tuc  venire  faciatis  24.  de  legalioribus  et  dis- 
cretioribus  baronibus  de  Hastings,  et  alios,  sicut  venire  solent  et  debent  ad  placitum 
de  Shipwey,  ad  respondendum  coram  prefatis  iustitiarijs  nostris  de  capitulis  sub- 
scriptis.  De  veteribus  placitis  corone,  quae  alias  fuerunt  coram  iustitiarijs  apud 
Shipwey,  et  no.  fuerunt  terminata.  De  nouis  placitis  'corone  nfe  que  infra  liber- 
tatem vestram  emerserunt  tempora  pacis,  postq.  iustitiarij  ultimo  itinerauerunt  apud 
Shipwey.  De  ijs  qui  sunt  in  misericordia  domini  regis  et  non  sunt  amerciati. 
De  ecclesijs  quae  sunt  de  ad  uocatione  domini  regis,  que  ecclesise  illae  sunt,  et  qui 
illas  habent,  et  per  quern,  et  quantu.  valent  per  annum.  De  assisis  pannorum  si 
seruatae  sint  sicut  prouisum  fuit,  et  si  quis  denarios  cepit  pro  pannis  contra  assisam 
veditis.  De  eschaetis  domini  regis,  quae  sunt,  et  qui  illas  tenent,  et  per  quod 
seruitium,  tarn  de  terris  Normannorum  q.  de  alijs,  et  si  quae  teneantur  sine  warranto 
capiatur  in  manu  dni  regis.  De  illis  qui  robbauerunt  in  terris  vel  in  aqua  post  pacem 
clamatam.  De  purpresturis  factis  su  p  dnm  regem,  siue  in  terra  siue  in  mari  siue  in 
aqua  dulci,  siue  intra  libertatem  siue  extra,  siue  alibi  vbicunque.  De  mensuris  factis 
et  iuratis  p.  regnum,  si  seruatae  sint  sicut  prouisu  fuit,  et  si  custodes  mensuraru 
mercede  ceperunt  ab  aliquo  q.  possit  p.  alias  emere  et  p.  alias  vedere:  quod  quide 
intelligatur  de  onibus  mesuris  ta.  vlnis  q.  p5derib.  De  vinis  veditis,  &c.,  de  thesauro 
&c.  De  catallis  Frackoru.,  &c.,  de  falsonarys,  &c.,  de  Burglatorib.,  &c.,  de  mercastis 
&c.,  de  Chabio,  &c.,  de  Fugitiuis,  &c.,  de  mercede,  &c.,  de  nouis  consuetudinibus,  &c., 


APPENDIX.  38s 

de  defaltis,  &c.,  de  gaolis,  &c.,  de  rapinis,  &c.,  de  nauibus  captis  in  guerra  et  traditis 
per  Wilhelmum  de  Wrotheham,  cui  tradebantur,  et  quis  illas  habeat  vel,  quid  de  illis 
actum  sit.  De  illis  qui  vendiderut  naues  vel  maeremium  ad  naues  faciendas  inimicis 
patris  domini  regis  et  suis,  contra  prohibitionem  patris  ipsius  domini  regis.  Faciatis 
etiam  venire  coram  eisdem  iustitiarijs  nostris  ad  prefatum  terminum,  onia  placita 
et  omnia  attachiameta  quae  venire  et  terminari  debent  et  solent  coram  iustitiarijs 
placita  tenetibus  apud  Shepwey  teste,  &c.  Eodem  modo  et  per  eadem  verba 
scribatur  balliuis  de  Romual,  balliuis  de  Heya,  balliuis  de  Doure  et  balliuis  de 
Sandwyz,  ita.  q  quilibet  eorum  portuum  habeat  litteras  per  se  in  praedicta  farma. 
Et  quoniam  sepius  contentio  est  inter  homines  praedictorum  portuu  ;  et  homines  de 
Gernemuth  et  de  Donwich,  fiat  breve  vie.  Norff.  et  Suff.  in  hac  forma.  92.  Rex  vie. 
Norff.  et  Sufif.  salutem.  Sciatis  q  summoniri  fecim  ad  talem  diem  apud  Shepwey, 
omnia  placita  de  quinque  portubus  sicut  teneri  debent  et  solent  coram  iustitiarijs 
apud  Shipwey.  Et  ideo  tibi  prsecipimus,  q  hoc  sciri  facias  hominibus  de  lernemewe 
et  balliuis  de  Donewiz,  ita  quod  si  aliquis  conqueri  voluerit  de  aliquo  qui  fit  de 
libertate  vel  infra  libertatem  quinq ;  portuum,  tunc  sit  apud  Shipwey  cotam  [or 
coram]  prefatis  iustitiarijs  nostris  querelam  sua  p.positurus  et  iustitiam  inde  recep- 
turus.     Teste,  &c." 

With  regard  to  the  Inquisitions,  Jeake's  note  is  as  follows  : — 
"  Within  that  Port. — The  Ports  men  of  the  Town  are  not  to  be  drawn  out, 
though  to  another  of  the  Ports,  for  the  taking  of  such  Inquisitions,  nor  were  they 
before  the  making  of  this  Charter ;  but  Inquisitions  of  this  kind  were  taken  where 
the  Jury  men  live,  though  for  the  King :  And  I  have  seen  the  Record  of  an 
Inquisition  taken  for  the  King  in  the  Thirteenth  Year  of  King  Henry  VI.  before 
Galfrido  Louthun,  then  Lieutenant  of  Dover  Castle,  at  Winchelsea,  by  Writ  from 
the  King  directed  to  the  Constable  of  the  Castle  of  Dover,  &c.,  to  inquire 
touching  the  Customs  of  Ships  and  Fishing  -  Boats  on  the  Sea,  called  Shares, 
and  the  Customs  called  Anchorage  and  Bulgate:  And  I  have  known  the  like 
taken  in  other  Ports,  and  can  produce  the  Presidents.  Nevertheless,  as  well 
since  the  making  of  this  Charter,  as  before,  some  of  the  Officers  of  the  Castle 
have  sometimes  issued  forth  their  Mandates  to  call  the  Ports  men  from  the 
Places  where  they  dwell  to  serve  in  Juries,  which,  perhaps  through  Ignorance, 
some  Ports  men  have  yielded  to;  yet  have  the  Ports  men  always  looked  on  it 
as  a  Grievance,  and  in  fit  Season  complained  thereof;  and  sometimes  denied 
Obedience  to  such  Mandates,  as,  among  other  Instances,  appears  in  this 
following,  which  I  transcribed  out  of  the  Records  of  Winchelsea,  and  have  here 
translated  thus : — 

'"Humfridus    dux    Buck.    Constabularius   Castri    Dovorr.   et    Custos   Quinque 


386  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

Portuum,  Majori  et  Ballios  de  Wynchelse,  salutem.  Virtute  officii  nostri  custodiae 
Quinque  Portuum  prsedictorum  vobis  mandamus  quod  venire  faciatis  corporaliter 
coram  nobis  seu  locum  nostrum  tenenti  apud  ecclesiam  sancti  Jacobi  Dovorr, 
xxvii"°  die  Januarii  proximo  futuro.  xxviii.  bonos  et  legales  homines,  de  melior- 
ibus  et  discretioribus  combaronibus  villae  vestrae  praedictae,  quorum  Ricardus  Hawly. 
Robertas  Moris,  Robertas  Rauwod,  Willielmus  Buckherst,  Stephanas  Sevenoke  et 
Laurentias  Bryce,  sex  esse  volumus,  ad  inquirendum  et  veritatem  dicendum  de  et 
super  certis  articulis  officium  nostrum  Castod.  Quinque  Portuum  praedictorum 
tangent.  Et  habeatis  tunc  ibidem  hoc  mandatum,  nobis  seu  locum  nostrum  tenenti 
de  executione  ejusdem  sub  sigillis  vestris  distincte  et  aperte  certificant.  Et  hoc 
sub  poena  ducent.  librarum  et  periculi  incumbent,  nullatenus  omittatis,  pro  qua 
quidem  poena  Domino  nostro  Regi  et  nobis  respondere  volueritis.  Dat.  apud 
Castrum  praedictum  sub  sigillo  officij  nostri  ibidem  xiii"  die  Januarij,  Anno  Regni 
Regis  Henrici  sexti  xxxvi'°. 

" '  Serenissimo  principi  et  domino,  domino  Humfrido  duci  Bucks,  custodi 
Quinque  Portuum  et  conservator!  libertatum  et  liberarum  consuetudinum  eorun- 
dem,  seu  ejus  locum  tenenti,  Nos  Major  et  Ballivus  Domini  nostri  Regus  villae 
suae  de  Wynchelse  significamus,  quod  cum  inter  caeteras  libertates  et  liberas  con- 
suetudines,  per  cartas  nostras  per  dictum  Dominum  Regem  et  suos  nobilissimos 
progenitores,  dudum  Angliae  Reges,  Baronibus  Quinque  Portuum  concessas,  et 
per  eosdem  Barones,  antecessores  et  praedecessores  suos  a  tempore  immemorato, 
cujus  contrarii  memoria  non  existit,  usitatas,  pr^dicti  Barones  usi  fuerunt,  debue- 
runt  et  consueverunt,  quod  ipsi  ad  quascunque  Inquisitiones  captas  ad  inquirend 
et  veritat.  dicend.  de  et  super  aliquibus  articulis  officium  Custodiae  tangent,  coram 
Domino  Custod.  Quinque  Portuum  pro  tempore  existente,  in  Curia  de  Shipweya, 
et  non  alibi,  impanellati  fuerunt,  debuerunt,  ac  consueverunt ;  nee  pro  aliquibus 
hujusmodi  articulis  officium  Custodiae  eorundem  Quinque  Portuum  tangent,  alibi 
quam  in  prsdicta  Curia  de  Shipweya  impanellari  seu  venire  debent  neque  tenentur, 
prout  praedicts  Cartse  et  liberae  consuetudines  eorundem  Quinque  Portuum  ration- 
alibit.  testantur ;  quapropt.  ad  venire  faciend.  corporaliter  coram  vobis  seu  locum- 
tenente  vestro,  ad  diem  et  locum  infra  contentos,  xviii.  homines,  prout  per  mandatum 
vestrum  nobis  mandat.  habere,  non  debemus  nee  tenemur  contra  tenorem  cartarum 
et  consuetudinum  praedictar.  propter  enervationem  libertatum  et  liber,  consuetud. 
Portuum  prsedict.  Quapropter  humillime  supplicamus  quod  placeat  celsitudini  et 
graciosae  Domination!  Domini  nostri  Lucis  praadicti,  Custodis  Quinque  Portuum 
et  Conservatoris  libertatum  et  consuetudinum  eorundem,  graciose  considerare,  quod 
placuit  Domination!  vestrte  in  prima  Curia  de  Shipweya  coram  vobis  tenta,  per 
sacramentum    vestrum    Domino    Regi    Angliae    prasstitum,    et    militiam    vestram 


APPENDIX.  387 

publice  declarare  et  pronunciare,  quod  omnes  libertates,  usus  et  consuetudines 
Quinque  Portuum  pro  posse  vestro  inviolat.  servaretis  et  manuteneretis.  Idcirco 
humillime  supplicamus  quod  prjedictas  libertates  et  consuetudines  in  omnibus 
conservetis  et  manuteneatis,  juxta  vim,  formam  et  effectum  prsedictarum  Cartarum 
et  consuetud.  Portuum  prsedictorum.'" 


APPENDIX    E. 

WRIT   OF    2 2ND   EDWARD    I.    RE   CAPTAIN    OF   OUR   MARINERS   AND 
SAILORS    OF   THE   CINQUE   PORTS,    Etc. 

"  De  Capitaneo  Nautarum  Constituto. 

{Rot.  K,  22  Ed.  I.  m.  8.) 

"  Rex,  &c.,  omnibus  vicecomitibus,  ballivis,  &c.  Sciatis  quod  constituimus  dilectum 
et  fidelem  nostrum  Willielmus  de  Leyburn  capitaneum  nautarum  et  marinellorum 
nostrorum  Quinque  Portuum  et  membrorum  eorundem,  et  similiter  Jernemuth, 
Baion,  Hibernias,  WalHae  et  omnium  aliorum  portuum  inquibus  naves  seu  batelli 
applicant  infra  regnum  et  potestatem  nostram,  et  etiam  militum  et  aliorum  fidelium 
nostrorum  qui  cum  ipso  .  .  .  sunt  profecturi.  Ita  quod  idem  capitaneus  per  se,  et 
alios  quos  per  litteras  suas  patentis  sigillo  suo  signatas  assignare,  deputare  et  des- 
tinare  voluerit,  capere  possint  et  secum  ducere  homines  idneos  et  potentes  adarmas, 
naves,  bongias,  &c.,  victuallia  et  alia  quK  ad  expeditionem  eorundem  necessaria 
fuerint ;  et  etiam  quod  cupere  possint  armaturas,  per  visum  dicti  cupitami,  at  illis 
a  quibus  idem  capitaneus  eas  viderit  capiendas :  dum  tamen  pro  hujus  modi  victu- 
allibus  et  alius  necessariis  .  .  .  satisficiant  illis  a  quibus  ea  ceperint  juxta  rationa- 
bile  pretium  eorundem  et  de  armaturis,  similiter,  vel  sufficientem  securitatem  in- 
veniant  de  ipsis  armaturis  restituendis.  Et  ideo  vobis  omnibus  et  singulis  man- 
damus .  .  .  quod  praedicto  Willielmo  tanquam  capitaneo  praedictorum  nautarum 
(&c.  as  above)  .  .  .  sitis  intendentes,  respondentes,  auxiliantes  et  divientes,  praet 
vobis  scire  faciet  ex  parte  nostra.  In  cujus,  &c.,  fieri  fecimus  patenter,  quanddice 
nobis  placuerit  duraturas.  Teste  Rege.  apud  Westmonasterium,  vii."  die  Junii." 
Nine  years  afterwards  we  have  Gervoise  Alard  of  Winchelsea  styled  :  "  capi- 
taneum -et  admirallum  flotse  nostrae  Quinque  Portuum,  et  etiam  omnium  aliorum 


388  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

Portuum  a  portu  nostra  Dovor  per  costeram  maris  versus  partes  occidentales  usque 
in  Cornubiam,"  &c.  The  fleet  is  to  go  "in  obsequium  nostrum  ad  partes  Scotiae." 
Otherwise  the  terms  of  the  letter  are  similar  to  that  above  cited.  Later  on  the 
offices  of  Admiral  and  Captain  are  divided  —  William  de  Creye  being  the  one 
and  John  de  Argyle  the  other  —  of  the  fleet  destined  by  Edward  II.  against 
the  Scots. 


APPENDIX  F. 
HONOURS  AT  COURT. 

This  is  Jeake's  account  of  the  above : — 

"■Coronations. — The  Barons  of  the  Cinque  Ports  and  tzvo  Ancient  Towns  have 
time  out  of  mind  had  the  honour  to  carry  the  Canopy  over  the  King  and  Queen 
at  their  Coronation,  and  dine  with  them  the  same  day,  as  was  before  noted ;  and 
in  the  Charter  of  King  Edward  I.  called  Their  Honours  at  Court.  Touching  which 
I  find  recorded,  fol.  37.  of  the  Customal  of  Winchelsea,  and  fol.  51.  of  the  Customal 
of  Rye,  in  Latin,  as  followeth,  to  which  I  have  annexed  the  Translation. 

"'Cum  autem  contigerit,  quod  aliquis  Rex  aut  Regina  Angliae  coronabitur, 
solent  Barones  Quinque  Portuum,  per  breve  dicti  Domini  Regis  summon,  eis  directi, 
ad  coronationem  illam  venire,  ad  solita  servitia  sua  faciend.  et  honores  suos  in  curia 
ejusdem  Domini  Regis  recipiend.  videlicet,  in  die  Coronationis  Domini  Regis,  cum 
de  camera  exierit  ut  coronetur,  et  cum  redierit  a  coronatione  sua,  solent  Barones 
Quinque  Portuum,  prout  de  jure  debent,  portare  super  Regem  ac  Reginam  pannos 
de  cerico  vel  de  auro,  scilicet,  per  triginta  duos  Barones  Quinque  Portuum  :  Ita  de 
jure,  quod  nullus  alius  sit  inter  eos  in  dicto  officio  exequend.  Et  solent,  prout  de 
jure  deberent,  mandari  per  breve  Domini  Regis  solempniter  per  summonition. 
quadraginta  dierum  ante  coronationem  praedictam,  quod  tali  die  veniant  ad 
faciend.  servitium  suum  Domini  Regi  debitum.  Et  solent  ipsi  triginta  duo,  vel 
plures  nobiliores,  venire  ibidem  de  una  secta  honorifice,  solempniterque  decenter 
vestiti  et  apparati  de  suo  proprio  et  suis  sumptibus  propriis,  sed  expensze  suse 
dummodo  fuerint  ad  curiam  solent  esse  de  com. 

"'Cum  autem  fecerint  officium  suum  portand.  prsdictos  pannos,  utrumque 
pannum  super  quatuor  lanceas  desuper  deargentat.  qualit.  lancea  habens  unam 
campanillam  argenteam  desuper  deauratam,  et  de  providentia  Thesaurar.  Domini 


^ 


APPENDIX.  389 

Regis,  ad  quamlibet  lanceam  solent  ire  quatuor  Barones.  Ita  quod  uterque  pannus 
portetur  per  sexdecem  Barones,  et  Dominus  Rex  sub  unius  panni  medio,  et  Regina 
sub  alterius  panni  medio.  Et  solent  ipsi  triginta  duo,  simul  cum  omnibus  aliis 
Baronibus  qui  adesse  voluerint,  habere  proximiorem  mensam  in  magna  aula  Regia, 
et  ad  dextram  ipsius  Regio  juxta  mensam  suam  de  jure  et  antiquo  libero  usu  sedere. 
Et  ubicunque  Dominus  Rex  invitaverit  Barones  Quinque  Portuum,  ut  secum 
comedant,  semper  habere  solent  de  jure  mensam  propinquiorem  mensse  suae  in 
dextris  ejus,  et  ibidem  in  prandio  sedere. 

" '  Cum  vero  licentiam  dicti  Barones  a  Domino  Rege  habeant  redeundi,  secum 
habebunt  praedictos  pannos,  cum  lanceis  et  campanillis,  et  omnibus  suis  pertinen. 
Et  solent  Barones  de  Hastyng  cum  suis  memhris  habere  unum  pannum  cum 
lanceis  et  campanillis  et  toto  apparatu  ejusdem,  cseteri  vero  Portus  alterum  pannum 
cum  toto  suo  apparatu.  Et  Barones  de  Hastyng  cum  suis  membris  solent  dare 
pannum  suum  sic  habitum  Ecclesiae  sancti  Ricardi  Cicestr.  et  sic  dederunt.  Et 
Barones  de  Romen,  Hethe,  Dovorr.  et  Sandwych  solent  dare  et  dederunt  pannum 
suum  sic  habitum  sancto  Thomae  in  Ecclesia  Christi  Cantuar.  et  diviserunt  lanceas 
et  campanillas  inter  se. 

" '  Cum  autem  aliquis  Rex  decesserit  et  alius  coronatur,  solet  proclamatio  fieri 
in  magna  aula  Regia,  quod  omnes  magnati  et  alii  quicunque  cujuscunque  status, 
gradus  seu  dignitatis  exist,  qui  aliquod  servitium  jure  vel  hereditar.  Domino  Regis 
ad  coronationem  suam  facere  deberent,  seu  honorem  sive  beneficium  ad  corona- 
tionem  Regis  seu  Reginse  habere  clamant,  venient  coram  seneschallo  Angliae  seu 
suo  locumtenente,  ad  certum  diem  assignat.  ad  monstrand.  et  declarand.  quod  et 
quale  servitium  tent,  seu  clamant  facere  ;  ad  quam  diem  solent  Barones  Quinque 
Portuum  adessend.  et  servitium  ad  dictam  coronationem  pro  Portubus  praedictis 
faciend.  electi  ministrar.  dicto  Domino  Seneschallo  quandam  supplicationem  sub 
hac  forma.' 

"  And  when  it  shall  happen,  that  any  King  or  Queen  of  England  shall  be 
crowned,  the  Barons  of  the  Cinque  Ports,  by  Writ  of  Summons  of  our  said  Lord 
the  King  to  them  directed,  are^  wont  to  come  to  the  Coronation,  to  do  their  wonted 
Services,  and  receive  their  Honours  in  the  Court  of  our  said  Lord  the  King,  that 
is  to  say,  in  the  Day  of  the  Coronation  of  our  Lord  the  King,  when  he  shall  go 
forth  of  his  Chamber  that  he  may  be  crowned,  and  when  he  shall  return  from  his 
Coronation,  the  Barons  of  the  Cinque  Ports  are  wont,  as  of  right  they  ought,  to  bear 
over  the  King  and  Queen  Cloths  of  Silk  or  of  Gold,  that  is  to  say,  by  thirty-two 
Barons  of  the  Cinque  Ports :  So  of  right  that  none  other  be  among  them  to  execute  ^ 
the  said  office.  And  they  are  wont,  as  of  right  they  ought,  to  be  sent  for  by  Writ 
^  Or  were  wont :  and  so  it  may  be  understood  in  other  Places,  Or  m  executing. 

2  C 


390  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

of  our  Lord  the  King  solemnly,  by  Summons  of  forty  Days  before  the  aforesaid 
Coronation,  that  such  a  Day  they  may  come  to  do  their  Service  due  to  our  Lord 
the  King.  And  the  same  thirty-two,  or  the  more  noble,  are  wont  to  come  there 
honourably,  solemnly  and  decently  clothed  and  apparelled  with  one  Suit  of  their 
own  proper  Costs ;  but  their  Expences  whilst  they  shall  be  at  Court  are  wont  to 
be  of  common. 

" '  And  when  they  shall  do  their  office  to  bear  the  Cloths  aforesaid,  each  Cloth 
upon  four  Staves  ^  overlaid  with  Silver,  every  Staff  having  one  little  silver  Bell 
overlaid  with  Gold,  and  of  the  providing  of  the  Treasurer  of  our  Lord  the  King, 
at  every  Staff  are  wont  to  go  four  Barons.  So  that  every  Cloth  be  born  by  six- 
teen Barons,  and  our  Lord  the  King  under  the  middle  of  one  Cloth,  and  the 
Queen  under  the  middle  of  another  Cloth.  And  the  same  thirty-two,  together 
with  all  the  other  Barons  which  will  be  present,  are  wont  to  have  the  next  Table 
in  the  King's  great^  Hall,  and  at  the  right  Hand  of  the  King  himself,  according 
to  his  Table,  to  sit  of  right  and  ancient  free  Use.  And  whensoever^  our  Lord 
the  King  shall  invite  the  Barons  of  the  Cinque  Ports,  that  they  may  eat  with 
him,  they  are  wont  always  of  right  to  have  the  Table  nearest  to  his  Table,  at  his 
right  Hand,  and  there  to  sit  at  Dinner. 

"'But  when  the  said  Barons  have  Licence  of  returning  from  our  Lord  the 
King,  they  shall  have  the  aforesaid  Cloths,  with  the  Staves  and  little  Bells,  and 
all  their  Appurtenances.  And  the  Barons  of  Hasting,  with  their  Members,  are 
wont  to  have  one  *  Cloth,  with  the  Staves  and  little  Bells,  and  all  the  Appurtenance 
thereof;  but  the  other  Ports  the  other  Cloth,  with  all  its  Appurtenance.  And  the 
Barons  of  Hasting,  with  their  Members,  are  wont  to  give  their  Cloth  so  had  to  the 
Church  of  St  Richard  of  Chichester,  and  so  they  have  given.  And  the  Barons  of 
Romney,  Hithe,  Dover,  and  Sandwich  are  wont  to  give,  and  have  given  their  Cloth 
so  had,  to  St  Thomas  ^  in  Christ's  Church  in  Canterbury,  and  they  have  divided  the 
Staves  and  little  Bells  amongst  themselves. 

"'And  when  any  King  shall  decease  and  another  be  crowned.  Proclamation  is 
wont  to  be  made  in  the  King's  great  Hall,  that  all  the  Nobles  and  others  whosoever, 
of  whatsoever  State,  Degree  or  Dignity  they  be,  which  ought  to  do  any  Service  by 
Right  or  hereditarily  to  our  Lord  the  King  at  his  Coronation,  or  claim  to  have 
any  Honour  or  Benefit  at  the  Coronation  of  the  King  or  Queen,  shall  come  before 
the  Steward  of  England  or  his  Deputy,  at  a  certain   Day  assigned,  to  shew  and 

'  Or  Launces  like  the  Staff  of  a  Spear  or  Launce.  so  that  there  were  two  Canopies  ;  but  now  the  Barons 

"  Now  called  Westminster  Hall.  divide  equally. 

■■  Ubicunque,  used  in  the  Latin  for  quandocunque.  ^  This  was  Tho.  Beckett,  then  a  popish  Saint. 

^  That  is,  when  both  King  and  Queen  are  crowned ; 


APPENDIX.  391 

declare  what  and  what  Manner  of  Service  they  hold  or  claim  to  do,  at  which  Day 
the  Barons  of  the  Cinque  Ports  are  wont  to  be,  and  those  elected  to  do  the  Service 
at  the  said  Coronation  for  the  Ports  aforesaid,  present  to  the  said  Lord  Steward 
a  certain  Petition  1  under  this  form.' 

" '  The  Petition  here  mentioned,  in  nature  of  a  Claim,  I  have  by  me  in  the  old 
French  Language,  as  I  copied  it  out  of  the  same  Customals  ;  but  since  the  Substance 
thereof  is  but  according  to  the  foregoing  Records,  I  forbear  to  insert  it.  And  more- 
over I  found  there,  at  the  Coronation  of  King  Richard  IIL  and  Queen  Anne  his 
Consort,  such  a  Petition  or  Claim  was  put  in  by  the  Ports  to  John  Duke  of  Norfolk, 
then  Steward  of  England,  wherein  they  claimed  these  Honours  as  belonging  to  the 
Ports  time  out  of  mind  ;  and  received  this  Answer : 

" '  Consideratum  est,  quod  Barones  Quinque  Portuum,  juxta  eorum  clameum, 

admittentur  ad  servitium  suum  faciend.  videlicet,  ad  gestand.  pannos  sericos,  quatuor 

hastis  deargentat  sustentat.  cum  campanillis  Argenteis  deauratis,  ultra  Regem  et 

Reginam  in  die  coronacionis  eorum,  et  post  servitium  impletum,  ad  eosdem  pannos 

cum  suis  apparat.  et  pertin.  prjedictis,  tanquam  feoda  sua  consueta,  percipiend.  et 

habend.      Ac  etiam  ad  sedend.  eodem  die  ad  principalem    mensam   ad    dextram 

partem  Aulse. 

'"Per  JOHANNEM  Ducem  Norff. 

senesc.  Angl.  hac.  Vice.' 
"  In  English  thus  : — 

" '  It  is  considered,  that  the  Barons  of  the   Cinque  Ports,  according  to  their 

Claim,  be  admitted  to  do  their  Service,  viz.,  to  bear  the   silk   Cloth  sustained   by 

four  Staves  silvered  over,  with  little  silvered  Bells  gilded,  over  the  King  and  Queen 

in  the  Day  of  their  Coronation  ;   and  after  the  Service  performed,  to  receive  and 

have   the  same   Cloths,  with  their  Appurtenances  aforesaid,  as   their   accustomed 

Fees.      And  also  to  sit  the   same   Day  at  the  principal  Table  at  the  right  side 

of  the  Hall. 

"  By  John  Duke  of  Norfolk, 

Steward  of  England  at  present.'  ^ 

"As  to  the  forty  Days  Summons  mentioned  in  the  upper  Part  of  this  Record, 
it  seems  to  be  the  old  Custom,  but  now  hath  long  been  disused,  for  I  find,  in  a 
Letter  of  Mr  Edward  Kelke  to  the  Ports,  July  11,  1603,  that  he  had  searched 
the  Tower,  the  Rolls,  the  Petty  Bag,  the  Six  Clerks,  and  the  Crown  Office,  to  find 
a  Precedent  for  a  Writ  of  Summons  for  the  Barons  of  the  Ports  to  do  their  Service 
at  the  Coronation,  but  could  find  none.  So  that  now  the  Ports  put  in  their  Claim 
by  way  of  Petition  as  aforesaid." 

^  Or  Stifplication.  '^  Or  at  this  time. 


392  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 


APPENDIX    G. 

THE  GREAT  CHARTER  OF  THE  PORTS. 

6th  Ed.  I.i 

"  Edvardus  Dei  Gratia,  Rex  Anglise,  Dominus  Hiberniae,  et  Dux  Acquitaniae, 
Archiepiscopis,  Episcopis,  Abbatibus,  Prioribus,  Comitibus,  Baronibus,  Justiciariis, 
Vicecomitibus,  Praepositis,  Ministris,  et  omnibus  Ballivis,  et  Fidelibus  suis,  salutem. 
Sciatis,  quod  pro  fideli  servitio  quod  Barones  nostri  Quinque  Portuum  hactenus 
Praedecessoribus  nostris,  Regibus  Anglise,  et  nobis  nuper  in  exercitu  nostro  Walliae 
impenderunt,  et  pro  bono  servitio  nobis  et  haeredibus  nostris,  Regibus  Angliae, 
fideliter  continuand.  in  futurum,  Nos  concessisse,  et  banc  cartam  nostram  confirmasse, 
pro  nobis  et  haeredibus  nostris,  eisdem  Baronibus  nostris  et  iiaeredibus  suis,  omnes 
libertates  et  quietancias  suas,  ita  quod  quieti  sint  de  omni  Theolonio,  et  de  omni 
consuetudine,  videlicet,  ab  omni  Lastagio,  Tallagio,  Passagio,  Carriagio,  Rivagio, 
Aponsagio,  et  omni  Wrec,  et  de  tota  venditione,  achato,  et  reachato,  suo  per  totam 
terram  et  potestatem  nostram,  cum  Socca,  et  Sacca,  et  Thol  et  Them.  Et  quod 
habeant  Infangtheff.  Et  quod  sint  Wrecfree,  et  Wittfree,  Lastagefree,  et  Love- 
copefree.  Et  quod  habeant  Den,  et  Strond,  apud  magnam  Jernemouth,  secundum 
quod  continetur  in  ordinatione  per  nos  inde  facta  et  perpetuo  observand.  Et  etiam 
quod  quieti  de  Shires  et  Hundreds,  ita  quod  si  quis  versus  illos  placitare  voluerit, 
ipsi  non  respondeant,  neque  placitent,  ahter  quam  placitare  solebant  tempore  Domini 
Henrici  Regis,  proavi  nostri.  Et  quod  habeant  inventiones  suas  in  mari  et  in  terra. 
Et  quod  quieti  sint  de  omnibus  rebus  suis,  et  toto  mercato  suo,  sicut  nostri  liberi 
homines.  Et  quod  habeant  honores  suos  in  curia  nostra,  et  libertates  suas  per 
totam  terram  nostram,  quocunque  venerint.  Et  quod  ipsi  de  omnibus  terris  suis, 
quas  tempore  Domini  Henrici  Regis,  patris  nostri,  videlicet,  anno  regni  sui  quad- 
ragesimo  quarto  possider.  quieti  sint  imperpetuum  de  communibus  summonitionibus 
coram  justiciariis  nostris,  ad  quscunque  placita  itinerantibus,  in  quibuscunque  comi- 
tatibus  hujusmodi  terrae  suae  existunt,  ita  quod  ipsi  non  teneantur  venire  coram 
justiciariis  praedictis,  nisi  aliquis  ipsorum  Baronum  aliquem  implacitet,  vel  ab  aliquo 
implacitetur.  Et  quod  non  placitentur  alibi  nisi  ubi  debuerunt,  et  ubi  solebant, 
scilicet,  apud  Shepweiam.     Et  quod  habeant  libertates  et  quietancias  suas  de  cietero, 

'  This  is  Jeake's  text.     Tliat  of  the  original  at  Hythe  shows  only  trifling  literal  differences. 


APPENDIX.  393 

sicut  ipsi  et  Antecessores  sui  eas  unquam  melius,  plenius,  et  honorificentius  habuerunt 
temporibus  Regum  Anglise  Edvardi,  WilHelmi  prlmi  et  secundi,  Henrici  Regis,  proavi 
nostri,  et  temporibus  Regis  Richardi,  et  Regis  Johannis,  avi  nostri,  et  Domini  Henrici 
Regis,  patris  nostri,  per  cartas  eorundem,  sicut  cartae  illse,  quas  iidem  Barones  nostri 
inde  habent,  et  quas  inspeximus,  rationabiliter  testantur.  Et  prohibemus  ne  quis 
eos  injuste  disturbet  neque  mercatum  eorum,  super  forisfacturam  nostram  decern 
librarum,  ita  tamen  quod  cum  ipsi  Barones  in  justicia  faciend.  et  recipiend.  desuerint, 
Gustos  noster,  et  haeredum  nostrorum  Quinque  Portuum,  qui  pro  tempore  fuerit, 
Portus  et  libertates  suas  in  defectu  eorundum  ingrediatur  ad  plenam  justiciam 
ibidem  faciend,  ita  etiam  quod  dicti  Barones  et  liseredes  sui  faciant  nobis  et  haered 
nostris,  Regibus  Angliae,  per  annum,  plenarium  servitium  suum  quinquaginta  et 
septem  navium,  ad  custum  suum  per  quindecem  dies,  ad  nostram  vel  haered 
nostrorum  summonitionem.  Concessimus  etiam  eisdem  de  gratia  nostra,  speciali, 
quod  habeant.  Utfangthefif,  in  terris  suis  infra  Portus  praedictos  eodem  mode  quo 
Archiepiscopi,  Episcopi,  Abbates,  Comites,  et  Barones,  habeant  in  maneriis  suis  in 
comitat.  Kanciae.  Et  quod  non  ponantur  in  Assisis,  Juratis,  vel  Recognitionibus 
aliquibus,  ratione  forinsecae  tenurae  suae,  contra  voluntatem  suam.  Et  quod  de 
propriis  vinis  suis  de  quibus  negotiantur,  quieti  sint  de  recta  prisa  nostra  (videlicet) 
de  uno  dolio  vini  ante  malum,  et  alio  post  malum.  Concessimus  insuper  eisdem 
Baronibus,  pro  nobis  et  haeredibus  nostris,  quod  ipsi  imperpetuum  banc  habeant 
libertatem  (videlicet)  quod  nos  vel  hsredes  nostri  non  habeamus  custodias  vel 
maritagia  haeredum  suorum,  ratione  terrarum  suarum  quas  tenent  infra  libertates 
et  Portus  praedictos,  de  quibus  faciunt  servitium  suum  antedictum,  et  de  quibus 
nos  vel  antecessores  nostri  custodias  et  maritagia  non  habuimus  temporibus  re- 
troactis.  Praedictam  autem  confirmationem  nostram  de  libertatibus  et  quietanciis 
praedictis,  et  alias  concessiones  nostras  sequentes,  eis  de  gratia  nostra  speciali  de 
novo  fieri  fecimus ;  salva  semper  in  omnibus  Regia  dignitate,  et  salvis  nobis  et 
haeredibus  nostris,  placitis  coronae  nostrae,  vitse  et  membrorum.  Quare  volumus  et 
firmiter  praecipimus  pro  nobis  et  haeredibus  nostris,  quod  pr^dicti  Barones  et  haeredes 
sui  imperpetuum,  habeant  omnes  libertates  et  quietancias  praedictas,  sicut  cartae 
praedictae  rationabiliter  testantur.  Et  quod  de  gratia  nostra  speciali  habeant 
Utfangthefif  in  terris  suis  infra  Portus  praedictos,  eodem  modo  quo  Archiepiscopi, 
et  Abbates,  Comites,  et  Barones,  habeant  in  maneriis  suis  in  Comitat.  Kanciae. 
Et  quod  non  ponantur  in  Assisis,  Juratis  vel  Recognitionibus  aliquibus,  ratione 
forinsecae  tenurae  suae,  contra  voluntatem  suam.  Et  quod  de  propriis  vinis  suis  de 
quibus  negotiantur,  quieti  sint  de  recta  prisa  nostra  (videlicet)  de  uno  dolio  vini 
ante  malum,  et  alio  post  malum.  Et  quod  similiter  imperpetuum  habeant  libertatem 
praedictam   (videlicet)  quod  nos,  vel   haeredes  nostri,  non   habeamus   custodias  vel 


394  THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 

maritagia  hseredum  suorum,  ratione  terrarum  suarum  quas  tennent  infra  libertates 
et  Portus  prsedictos,  de  quibus  faciunt  servitium  suum  antedictum,  et  de  quibus 
nos,  vel  antecessores  nostri,  custodias  et  maritagia  non  habuimus  temporibus  re- 
troactis.  Praedictam  autem  confirmationem  nostram  de  libertatibus  et  quietanciis 
prasdictis,  et  alias  concessiones  nostras  sequentes,  eis  de  gratia  nostra  speciali  de 
novo  fieri  fecimus  ;  salva  semper  in  omnibus  Regia  dignitate,  et  salvis  nobis  et 
hseredibus  nostris,  placitis  coronse  nostrae,  vitae  et  membrorum,  sicut  prsedictum 
est.  Hiis  testibus  venerabili  patre  Roberto  Portuense  Episcopo,  sacro  sanctse 
Romanae  ecclesise  Cardinale,  fratre  Gulielmo.  de  South.,  priore  provincial.,  fratrum 
prsedicatorum  in  Anglia,  Gulielmo  de  Valentia  avunculo  nostro,  Rogero  de  Mortuo 
mari,  Rogero  de  Clifford,  magistro  Waltero  Stamell,  decano  Sarum,  magistro 
Roberto  de  Scardeburgh,  archidiac.  Estridings,  magistro  Roberto  de  Sexton,  Bartho- 
lomeo  de  Southley,  Thoma  de  Wayland,  Waltero  de  Hopton,  Thoma  de  Normannel, 
Stephano  de  Pencestre,  Francisco  de  Bonona,  Johanne  de  Levetot,  Johanne  de 
Mettingham,  et  aliis.  Dat.  per  manum  nostram  apud  Westmonaster.  decimo 
septimo  die  Junii,  Anno  Regni  nostri  sexto. 


INDEX. 


Note. — Numbers  italicised  after  the  names  of  towns,  villages,  ^c,  refer  to  f  ages  in  which  those  towns  are  specially 
treated  of;  those  following  the  7iames  of  kings  refer  to  charters  granted  by  those  kings. 


Abbeys  (and  religious  edifices  and  institutions) — 
of  Bangor,  246. 

of  Battle,  or  Battel,  28-30,  ^6-60. 
of '  Battel,  Chronicle  of,'  25,  26,  30. 
of  Burgue  St  Winnox,  59. 
of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  134,  160,  189- 

191,  201,  249,  311,  314,  316-323,  375. 
of  Faversham,  280,  281. 
of  Fdcamp  (Priors  of),  27,  28,  43,  66,  67,  93, 

95>  96. 

ofFIy,  58,  59. 

of  Minster-in-Thanet,  312,  313,  318. 

of  St  Augustine's  College,  Canterbury,  254, 
255,  280,  281,  312,  313,  316-323. 

of  St  Denis,  28. 

of  St  Martin's,  Dover  (Priory),  248,  292. 

of  St  Radigund's,  Dover,  190,  297. 

of  St  Sepulchre's  (Canterbury),  151. 
Abingdon,  Chronicle  of,  315,  316. 
Addison,  Joseph,  56. 

Additional  MSS.  (British  Museum),  273,  274. 
Admiral  of  Five  Ports,  specimen  of  writ  re,  387. 
Agincourt,  15,  71,  200,  268,  325. 
Airey,  Prof.,  127. 

Alard,  the  family  of,  80,  81,  387,  388. 
Albini,  Sir  Philip  d',  263. 
Albranches.     See  Avranches. 
Aldington,  129,  131,  149,  155,  i8o-i8s. 
Alfred,  King,  249,  258. 
Algerine  pirates,  211. 
Alkham,  297. 
Alva,  Duke  of,  loi. 
Ambleteuse,  126. 


Ammianus  Marcellinus,  308. 

Anderida,  23,  24,  62,  373. 

Andred,  forest  of,  23,  29,  71,  88. 

Andrievski,  Russian  Encyclopsedia,  379. 

Anglesey,  Isle  of,  6. 

Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  24,  187. 

Angouleme,  Duchess  of,  276. 

Annehault,  Claude  de,  34. 

Anne,  Queen,  275. 

Anselm.     See  Archbishops. 

Antient  towns,  69,  94. 

Antoninus  Augustus,  Itinerary,  129,  244. 

Anulph,  King  of  the  Mercians,  134. 

Appach,  F.  H.  (on  Cesar's  landing),  127,  128. 

Appledore,  112,  125,  128,  135,  i6g,  170,  248. 

Apultre.     See  Appledore. 

'  Archceologia  Cantiana,'  187,  191,  206,  246,261, 

308,  310,  325,  341. 
'  Archffiological  Collections,'  Sussex,  31,  71,  107, 

147. 
'  Archffiological  Journal,'  186. 
Archseological  Society — 

the  British,  127. 

of  Kent,  308,  325,  357. 

of  Sussex,  54. 
Archbishops  of  Canterbury — 

Anselm,  139,  260. 

Baldwin,  138. 

Becket,  Thomas.     See  Thomas  of  Canter- 
bury, Saint. 

Boniface,  138. 

Chichele,  200. 

Courtenay,  139,  189,  194,  258. 


396 


THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 


Archbishops  of  Canterbury,  continued— 

Cranmer,  202. 

Dunstan.     See  Dunstan,  St. 

Lanfranc,  301,  311,  317- 

Laud,  333,  334- 

Morton,  202,  327,  328. 

Parker,  361. 

Peckham,  138,  189,  258. 

Stigand,  253,  317. 

Warham,  149-151,  180,  181. 
Archbishop's  jurisdiction  over  Port  towns,  137- 

139,  191,  192,  194,  195,  200-202,  281,  375,  376. 
Armada,  the  Invincible,  16,  34,  35,  102,  105,  115, 

197,  210,  272,  332. 
Arviragus,  243. 

Ashburnham  House,  36,  56,  57. 
II  family,  253-255. 

11  Mr  {temp.  Charles  I.),  36. 

Ashford,  166. 
Atheling,  Eadgar,  256. 
Athelstan,  280. 
Augusta  Legio  II.,  245,  308. 
Augustine,  St,  248. 
Augustus,  Imp.,  245. 
Avranches,  William  de,  192,  260. 

Barfrestone,  299. 

Barham,  237. 

Barham  Downs,  270,  271,  300. 

Barton,  Elizabeth,  150-152,180,  182. 

Batalha  (Portugal),  Church  of,  81. 

Battely,  '  Antiq.  Rutup.,'  308,  309. 

Battle,  26,  56,  253. 

Battle,  Abbot  of,  Hamo  of  Ofifington,  97. 

Bayeux  Tapestry,  26. 

Bayonne,  321. 

Beachy  Head,  37. 

II  II       battle  of,  35,  104. 

Bede,  Ven.,  '  Opera  Historica,'  248,  308. 
Bekesbourne,  300. 
Bexhill,  48. 

Billiricay,  Castle  of,  131. 
Bilsington,  129,  149,  171. 

II  Priory,  171- 174. 

Birchington,  364, 365. 
Bisceopswic  Marsh,  134,  135. 
Black  Prince,  the,  13,  146. 

Blake,  Admiral  R.  (Lord  Warden),  104,  337,  338. 
Blenheim,  battle  of,  275. 
Bliicher,  Marshal,  277. 
Bodiam,  72. 

Bonnington,  127-129,  134,  iji,  i'j2,  180. 
Borde,  Andrew,  33. 


Borough  English,  law  of,  136. 
Borrow,  George,  72,  219,  220. 
Botolph's  Bridge,  183. 
Boulogne,  2,  8,  97,  126,  192,  233,  244. 

II         projected  invasion  from,  74,  276. 
Bourbon,  Prince  de,  276. 
Boyne,  battle  of,  103. 
Boys'  'History  of  Sandwich,'  16,  316,  321,  322, 

325,  333- 
Bracton,  Breve  de  geiierali  sicmmonitt07te,  &c., 

384,  385- 
Brede,  27,  8g,  go,  gi. 

II      river,  103. 
V>x€z€,  Mardchal  de,  326. 
Brightlingsea,  334,  373. 
Broadstairs,  366, 367. 

Brodhull  Courts,  137,  143,  I44,  205,  378,  383. 
Brookland,  167,  i6g. 
Browne,  Sir  Anthony,  59. 
Bruges,  321,  351. 
Buckingham,  William  de,  68,  69. 
Burgh,  Hubert  de,  6,  15,  261-264,  288. 

,1      's      11         II    action  off  Dover,  263,  264. 
Burmarsh,  136. 
Burrows,  Prof.  Montagu,  'Cinque  Ports,'  7,  131, 

137,  266,  326,  348. 
Burrows',    Prof.,    Reply    to    Mr    Round    ('Arch. 

Rev.'),  379- 
Butler,  Alban,  '  Lives  of  Saints,'  188. 
Byron,  Lord,  40,  293. 
Byrthric.     See  Godwin  and  Byrthric. 

Cade,  Jack,  204. 

Cadiz,  210. 

Caesar,   C.  Julius,  2,  23,  126-129,  243,  244,  300, 

305-307- 
Cesar's  Camp  (Folkestone),  161,  186,  233. 
Calais,  9,  lo,  17,  71,  147,  148,  262-268,  272,  281, 

320,  323,  324. 
Caligula,  244. 
Camber,  72,  107,  121. 

II         Castle,  44,  103,  107,  118,  121,  122,  225. 
Camden,  'Britannia,'  23,  56,   130,  143,   196,  247, 

269. 
Camden  Society,  '  Rutland  Papers,'  270. 
Camperdown,  battle  of,  105. 
Canterbury,  129,  139,  189,  237,  250-255,  301,  335. 

II  Archbishops  of.     See  Archbishops. 

Capel-le-Ferne,  297. 
"  Captain  of  our  Mariners  "  (Writ),  387. 
Carter,  Mr  (preventive  officer),  'An  Abstract  of 

Proceedings  of,'  148,  149. 
Cartei-'s  'Expedition  of  Kent,'  335. 


INDEX. 


Z97 


Cassiterides,  the,  124. 
Cato,  P.,  141. 

Caxton,  '  Informacion  for  Pylgrymes,'  265. 
Champneys,  Basil,  114,  158. 
Chandos,  Sir  John,  10. 

Charles  I.,  36,  108,  211,  273,  288,  336,  337,  339. 
1,        II.,    274,    275,    291,   336,   337,  339,   340, 

341- 
rr        V.  (Emperor),  270,  289,  301. 
Charlton,  245. 
Charta,  Magna,  70,  288. 
Charter  of  Edward  I.,  text  of  (Jeake's),  378,  392- 

394- 
Chaucer,  G.,  149. 
Chesil  Beach,  103,  125,  132. 
Chiltern,  Manor  of,  66. 
Christ  Church  (Canterbury).     See  Abbeys. 
Chrodegangus,  Bishop  of  Metz,  248. 
Churchill's  '  Prophecy  of  Famine,'  293. 

11  Voyages,  333. 

Cicero,  M.  T.,  23. 

'Civil  War  Tracts'  (British  Museum),  335,  337. 
Clarke,  Dr,  excavations  at  Lympne,  130. 
Clinton,  Earl  of  Huntingdon,  9. 
Clinton  and  Say,  Lord,  192. 
Cnut,  2,  136,  igi,3i4. 
Cobbett,  W.,  55. 
Cobham,  Lord,  268. 
Coire,  246. 
Coke,  Thomas,  161. 
Coldred,  299. 

Cole's  '  Antiquities  of  Hastings,'  23,  30. 
Cologne,  city  council  of,  99. 
Compostella,  St  Jago  de,  72,  143. 
Cook,  Captain,  circumnavigator,  166. 
Cooper's  '  History  of  Winchelsea,'  66,  69,  147. 
Corunna,  227. 

Cossacks,  organisation  of,  379. 
Court-up-Streete  (at-Street),  131-137,  130-153- 
Cranmer,  Archbishop.     See  Archbishops. 
Crecy,  battle  of,  9. 
Crimean  vi'ar,  226. 
Crispin  and  Crispinus,  Saints,  280. 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  338,  339. 
Curthose,  Robert,  192. 
Czar  of  Russia  (at  Dover),  277. 

Dacre,  Lords  (of  the  South),  55,  56. 
Dalhousie,  Marquis  of  (Lord  Warden),  371. 
Damme,  battle  of,  6. 
Darby,  Parson,  51. 

Darell,  '  History  of  Dover  Castle,'  243,  244,  247, 
248,  253,  260. 


"  Dauphin,  Lewis  the."     See  Lewis. 
Deal,  128,  129,  297,  -^6,1,  368,  369. 

«      Castle,  328,  334-337,  369- 
Defoe,  Daniel,  'Tour,'  206. 
Denge  Marsh,  133,  205. 
'DeringMSS.,'246,  288. 
Despensers,  the,  7. 
De  Witt,  Admiral,  35,  104. 
Dickens,  Charles,  366. 
Dilke,  Sir  Charles,  50,  53.  ' 
'  Domesday  Book,'  27,  138,  191,  201,  252,  253,  256- 

258,  268,  316. 
Dour  river,  297. 

Dover,  5,  28,  71,  138,  200,  207,  210,  242-304,  305, 

306,  33S-338,  343,  347,  373-375- 
Dover  Castle,   Constableship  of,  247,   253,  255, 

259,  260,  261,  268,  377. 

Dover  Castle,  sieges  of,  261-264,  334. 

11        Directory,  276. 
Dufferin,  Marquis  of  (Lord  Warden),  291. 
Dumas,  Alexandre,  ^^rt?,  '  Memoires,'  289. 
Dungeness,  84,  135,  i6i-i6s. 
Dunstan,  St,  189,  190,  237,  249,  311,  375,  376. 
'  Dunstan,  Memorials  of,'  190. 
Dunwich,  4,  67,  206,  382. 
Durham  Cathedral,  114. 
Dymchurch,  123,  137, 183,  184,  222,  306,  307. 

Eadbald  of  Kent,  192,  246. 

Eadbright's  charter,  134. 

Eanswith,  I  go. 

Eastbourne,  Z3,  39, 50, 5i- 

East  Dean,  51. 

Ebbsfleet,  312,  313,  367. 

Eddius,  Stephanus,  '  Life  of  Wilfrith,  311. 

Edward  the  Confessor,  24,  93,  249-252,  270,  281, 

315,316,^7^,^75. 
Edward  I.,  3, 4,  31, 65-77, 94, 140, 146,  266,3rg-38i. 

11       II.,  6,  7,  yo,  195,  266. 

11       III.,  8,  70,  71,  g4,  96,  116,  146,  149,  202, 
241,  122,324. 

II       IV.,  99, 140,  203,  26g. 

11       VI.,  loi. 
Edwin,  188. 
Egelsine,  253,  255. 
'EgertonMSS.,'  148. 
Elham,  235,  237. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  34,  33,  73,  83,  102,   105,  115 
144,  igs,  202,  206,  209,  241,  271,  278,  282,  329- 

332- 
ElHott,  Mr,  'On  Marsh  Levels,'  129. 
Elwin,  Rev.  C.  S.,  'Records  of  Walmer,'  336-338, 

371. 


398 


THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 


Ely,  Bishop  of,  67,  77,  260. 
'  Encomium  Emmae,'  314. 
'  England's  Interest  Asserted,'  147,  148. 

I.  Joy,'  274. 

Erasmus,  Desiderius,  149. 

II  11  '  Peregrinatio    Religionis,' 

302. 
Erpingham,  Sir  T.,  268. 
Essex,  Earl  of  (Henry  II.),  201. 
II  II      (Elizabeth),  211. 

Ethelbert,  310. 

Ethelburga,  St,  188,  236,  237. 
Ethelred  (the  Unready),  313,  314,  374. 
Ethelwan,  134. 
Eu,  Counts  of,  28,  29. 
Eustace  of  Boulogne,  249-252,  255. 

II        the  Monk,  6,  262. 
Evelyn,  John,  'Diary,'  73,  120. 
Evesham,  battle  of,  65. 
Ewell,  House  of  the  Templars  at,  261,  298. 

Fairlight,  46-48,  132,  161. 

Falaise,  258. 

Faramus  of  Boulogne,  259. 

Fauconberg  (the  Bastard),  327. 

Faulconbridge,  Sir  R.,  264. 

Faversham,  280-283,  joz-jo^^,  328,  341. 

Fawken-Hurst,  223. 

Fdcamp.     See  under  Abbeys. 

Fector  family,  276. 

Fescampe.     See  Fecamp. 

Fienes  family,  55,  259-261. 
II      Sir  R.  de,  55,  288. 

Fischamp.     See  Fdcamp. 

Flambard,  Ranulph,  377. 

Flanders,  Count  of  (Baldwin  V.),  321. 

Fletcher,  John,  119. 

n         '  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle,'  212. 

Folkestone,  132,  149,  161,  164,  187-241,  195,  280, 
298,  300,  328. 

Fordwich,  360,  361. 

Foreland,  the  North,  jdj,  jiJd. 

Foreland,  the  South,  2gy. 

Fowey,  Gallants  of,  17,  99. 

Freeman,   Prof,   'Norman   Conquest,'   250-255, 
3'5.  377,  378. 

'  Froissart,  Chronique  de'  (Buchon's  edition),  g, 
15,  264. 

'  Froissart,  Chronique  de,'  Lord  Berners'  transla- 
tion, 15,  323,  324. 

Froude,  'Life  of  Erasmus,'  149,  150. 

Fussell,  'Top.  of  Kent,'  161,  240,  295,  296,  344- 


Fynes.     See  Fienes. 

Gadeira,  124. 

Gardiner,  Mr  Rawson,  338. 
Garnier,  'Vie  de  St  Thomas,'  192. 
Gascony,  17. 

Gaunt,  John  of.     See  Lancaster. 
Gavelkind,  136. 

Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  '  Chronicle,'  24,  309. 
George  II.,  112. 
"       III.,  147,  337. 
II       IV.,  105,  120,  276,  367. 
Geraldine,  the  Fair,  59. 
German  Legion,  226. 
'  Gesta  Henrici  V,'  325. 
Gibbon,  family  of,  298. 
'  Gildas,  the  Chronicle  of,'  187. 
'Gododin,'  the,  187. 
Godwin,  Earl  of  Kent,  24,  93,  249-251,  258,  315, 

376. 
Godwin  and  Byrthric  (Marriage  Contract),  136. 
Goodwin  Sands,  342. 
Gotham,  33. 

Grafton's,  R.,  '  Chronicle,'  32,  55,  326. 
Graham,  R.  B.  Cunningham,  53. 
Granville,  Earl  (Lord  Warden),  371. 
GraveUnes,  318. 
Gresham,  Sir  Thomas,  207. 
Grey,  Lady  Mary,  207. 
II  II      Jane,  207. 

Gruffyd,  Ap,  125. 
Guestling,  Courts  of,  378,  383-385. 
Guildford,  Sir  E.,  270. 

11  Earls  of,  299. 

11  ferry,  148. 

Guldeford,  family  of,  78. 

M  East,  149. 

Hakluyt,  '  Voyages,'  9. 

Hall,  '  Chronicle,'  205,  326. 

Halley,  Dr  (on  Ca5sar's  landing),  126. 

Ham  Street,  129,  iji. 

Hanse  Towns,  7. 

Harbledown,  301. 

Hardres,  sjy. 

Hare,  A.  J.  C,  '  Story  of  my  Life,'  55. 

Harfleur,  102. 

Harleian  MS.  Collection,  206. 

Harold,  King,  24-26,  45,  58,  93,  137,  249-255,  316, 

376. 
Harris,  '  History  of  Kent,'  28,  246. 
Harry  Grace  de  Dieu,  the,  18,  103. 
Har\ey,  William,  212. 


INDEX. 


399 


Hasted,  'History  of  Kent,'  i88,  361. 

Hasten,  23,  135. 

Hastings,  5,  22-60.,  66,  103,  137,  214,  252,  253, 

284,  300,  32s,  373-376,  379i  380. 
Hawking e,  sgy. 
Hempton  Hill,  155,  239. 
Hengist,  2,  187. 

Henry  de  Bathonia's  Ordinance,  140. 
Henry  I.,  4,  29,  1(^2,317,318. 

II       H.,  30,  139,  201,  240,  260. 

II      III.,  6,  54,  96,  140,  264,  281,  3ig,  380. 

II      IV.,  71, 140. 

II      v.,  15,  71,  102,  ig3,  199,  200,  325. 

n      VI.,  18,  98,  99,  140,  269. 

1,      VII.,  loi. 

11      VIII.,  34,  103,  121,  150-152,  202,  205,  206, 

269-271,  281,  289,  301,  328,^55. 
Herbert  of  Bosham,  '  Life  of  St  Thomas,'  318, 

319- 

Heme,  361. 

Hesiod,  141. 

'  Historical  Manuscripts  Commissioners'  Reports,' 
138,  144,  14s.  199,  279- 

'  Hlothaere,  Laws  of,'  311. 

Holinshed's  '  Chronicle,'  56,  103. 

Holloway,  '  History  of  Rye,'  92,  96,  98,  106. 

"  Honours  at  Court,"  388,  389. 

Hook,  Theodore,  40. 

Hopkins,  Mr  Tighe,  'An  Idler  in  Old  France,' 
199. 

Horsa,  247. 

Hougham,  297. 

Hozier,  Captain,  'Invasions  of  England,'  35. 

Hudeanfleot.     See  Hythe. 

Huguenots,  73,  117,  342. 

Hunt,  Holman,  88. 

Hurstmonceaux,  jj,  ^6. 

Hutchinson,  Lucy,  '  Memoirs  of  Colonel  Hutchin- 
son,' 339,  340,  368. 

Hythe,  127,  139,  160,  184,  183-24.1,  266,  310,  373- 

375- 
11       West,  131,  160,  191,  199,  222,  223. 

Icklesham,  8g. 

Iham,  manor  of,  96. 

Inderwick,  67,  70-77,  81-83,  108. 

Innocent,  Pope,  Bull  of  Excommunication,  5. 

Installation  of  Lords  Warden,  ceremony  observed 

at,  290,  291. 
Ippidsfleete.     See  Ebbsfleet. 
Ipres,  William  de.     See  Ypres. 
Ireland,  W.  H.  'History  of  Kent,'  134,  145,  158, 

159,  165,  252,  291,  300,  321,  361. 


Ireland's  '  Vortigern,'  321. 

Isaacson,  Rev.  S.,  'On  Dymchurch,'  123. 

Ivychurch,  169. 

Jacob's  '  History  of  Faversham,'  281,  282. 
Jal,  'Diet.  Nav.,'  19. 
James  I.,  272,  334. 

n       II.,  103,  275,  282,  283,341. 
James,  Mr  Henry,  120. 
Jeake,  Samuel,  of  Rye  (the  elder),  35,  loi,  103, 

104,  142,  143.  193,  320. 
Jenkins,  Canon,  187,  189,  190,  237,  246,  248,  325, 

342. 
John,  King,  J-,  30,  202,  242,  260-263,  264,  301,  319, 

380. 
John  de  Oxenedes,  Chronicle  of,  319. 
John  of  France,  324. 

John  of  Gaunt.     See  Lancaster,  Duke  of 
Jones,  Inigo,  299. 

Jonson,  Ben,  'Alchemist,'  332,  351. 
Juvenal,  '  Satires,'  243,  307,  308. 

Kemble,  the  '  Saxons  in  England,'  311. 
Kent,  Weald  of,  141. 
Kentish  Petition,  335. 
Kentish  Rising  (1647),  334-338- 
Knocker,  Mr  (of  Dover),  28,  245,  290. 
Knox,  Dr,  '  Paper  read  before  Ethnological  So- 
ciety,' 188. 
Knyghton,  H.  de, '  Chronicle,'  8,  193,  194,  266, 268. 
Kob,  Thomas,  150,  180. 

Lamb,  Charles,  41,  344. 

Lamb,  family  of  (Rye),  106,  118. 

Lambarde  family,  66. 

Lambarde,  William,  '  Perambulation  of  Kent,' 
61,  62,  65,  66,  69,  123,  135,  141-143,  150-152, 
194,  195,  201,  246,  247,  249-254,  259,  269,  302, 

312,  313- 
Lancaster,   Duke   of  (John  of  Gaunt),    13,    149, 

194. 
Langebek,  'Script.  Rer.  Danic.,'  313,  314. 
Lapis  Tituli,  187,  309. 
Leland,  130,  131,  142,  183,  188,  192,  193,  196,  198, 

245,  281,  297,  298,  310,  328,  362. 
Lespagnols-sur-Mer,  battle  of,  9,  \^  et  seqq.,  264, 

324- 
Lewes,  34, 55. 

II       battle  of,  6,  54,  55,  65,  380. 
II       Castle,  16. 
Lewin's  'Invasion,'  129. 

Lewis,  son  of  Philip  Augustus  of  France  (Lewis 
VIII.),  18,  30,  95,  242,  261-264,  319. 


400 


THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 


'  Liber  Albus '  of  London,  323. 
Limene,  river,  125,  140-144. 
Lisbon,  siege  of  (i  147),  30. 
Littlestone-on-Sea,  160,  309. 
Liverpool,  Earl  of  (Lord  Warden),  370. 
Llewellyn,  Prince  of  Wales,  6. 
Lodemanage,  court  of,  269,  270. 
London,  city  of,  J2,,  79;  99i  252.  311,  3' 7- 
Long  Parliament,  195. 
Longsword,  William,  6. 
Louis  XIV.,  35. 

„      XVIII.,  276,  277. 
Lower,  'History  of  Sussex,'  35,  51. 
Lucan,  307. 

Lucius,  king  and  saint,  246,  288. 
Lucy,  Mr  W.  H.,  '  Faces  and  Places,'  162. 
Lundenwic,  311  et  seqq. 
Lupicinus,  308. 

Lydd,  134,  135,  145,  146,  164-168,  204. 
Lydgate,  181,  247. 
Lyminge,  188,  189,  197,  233,  236. 
Lympne,  125,  126-133,  I55. 1S2, 183,  184,  191,  223, 

241. 
Lyon,  '  History  of  Dover,'  244,  245,  247,  269,  272. 

Machines  for  bathing,  inventor  of,  345. 

Mackie,  '  History  of  Folkestone,'  197,  198. 

Mahan,  Captain,  '  Influence  of  Sea  Power,'  17. 

Mah4  St,  batde  of,  7. 

Maid  of  Kent.     See  Barton,  Elizabeth. 

Mandubratius,  244. 

Manwood,  Roger,  330,  352. 

Margaret's  Bay,  St,  2g8,  2gg. 

Margate,  342-348. 

Marlborough,  Duke  of,  275. 

Marseilles,  124. 

Marsh,  Richard,  '  Narrative  of  the  Capture  of  the 

Late  King,'  282,  283. 
Marsh,  Romney,  liberty  of,  124-184. 

I.  11        charters  of,  140. 

Marshall,  W.,  260. 
Martin,  Kennet,  '  Oral  Traditions  of  the  Cinque 

Ports,'  346. 
Mary  I.,  270,  271,  278. 
Matthew  Paris,  26,  201,  242,  262,  313,  314. 
Matthew  Westmon.,  '  Flores  Hist.,'  314. 
Maud,  Empress,  30,  95,  260. 
Maxlmus,  Magnus  (Imp.  Rulup.),  308. 
Melun,  Vicomte  de,  262. 
'Mercurius  Rusticus,'  37. 

II  Phreneticus,'  338. 

Merlin,  24. 
Mersewarum,  134. 


Mildred,  St  (of  Minster),  312,  313,  318,  367. 

Millais,  Sir  J.  E.,  76. 

Minot,  9. 

Minster-in-Thanet,  312,  313,  314,  2,1%,  367. 

Moncrief  Fort,  153. 

Monk,  General,  274. 

Montalembert,  '  Les  Moines  de  I'Occident,'  188. 

Montfort,  Hugh  de,  192,  255,  259. 

Montfort,  J.  de,  322. 

Montfort,  Simon  de,  30,  301. 

Moss,  '  History  of  Hastings,'  38. 

Napoleon  I.,  197,  276. 

II  III.,  'Vie  de  J.  C^sar,'  126,  128,  306, 

307. 
Nelson,  Lord,  197,  370. 
Nennius,  '  Historia  Briton.,'  154,  187,  246. 
Nesshe  (Nesh),  162. 
New  Burg  (Hastings),  27. 
Newchurch,  140. 

New  England,  emigrants  to,  333,  334. 
Newhaven,  33,  54. 
Newington,  233. 

Nichol's  'Progress  of  Elizabeth,'  271. 
Nicholas,  St,  301. 
Nicolas,  Sir  H.,  '  History  of  Royal  Navy,'  5,  7,  9, 

12,  262-264. 
North,  Lord  (Lord  Warden),  369. 
Northfleet,  wreck  of,  164,  167. 
'Nova  Legenda  Anglias,'  188,  312. 

Dates,  Titus,  43. 

Odo,  Bishop  of  Bayeux,  137,  192,  255-259,  316, 

317,  vn- 

Offa,  King  of  Kent,  134. 
Office  of  jurat,  &c.,  penalty  for  refusing,  139. 
11  11         M       case  of  refusal,  208,  209. 

Orange,  Prince  of     See  William  III. 
Ore,  48. 

Oswulf,  Duke,  189,  190. 
Othona,  23,  373,  374. 
Ouse,  the  Sussex,  32. 
Owling  trade,  146-149. 
Oxenbridge  family,  81,  90. 
Oxford,  Provisions  of,  380. 
Ozengell  skull,  188. 

Paddlesworth,  235. 

Palmerston,  Lord  (Lord  Warden),  290. 

Pandulph,  Legate,  264. 

Parry,  Serg.,  53. 

Pelham,  Sir  N.,  34. 

Pencestre,  Stephen  de,  192,  262. 


INDEX. 


401 


Pepys,  Samuel, '  Diary,'  274,  295. 
Peterborough,  262. 

M  Chronicle  of,  315. 

Peter,  St,  258. 
Pett,  8g. 

»     Level,  81,  88. 
Pevensey,  23,  24,  26  et  segg.,  33,  48-31,  55,  124, 

315.373- 
Pevensey  Marsh,  48,  49. 
Philip  Augustus  of  France,  8. 
Philipot,  '  Villare  Cantium,'  23,  192,  ig6. 
Phoenicians,  traffic  with  British,  124. 
Picardy,  135,  378  et  seqq. 
Pickwick,  S.,  45. 

Pilots,  Cinque  Ports.     See  Lodemanage. 
Pim,  Captain,  of  Winchelsea,  109. 
Pitt,  William  (Lord  Warden),  16,  39,  370. 
Portus  Lemanis,  129,  373. 
Posidonius,  124. 
Poste,  the  Rev.  Beale,  127. 
Poynter,  Mr  Ambrose,  292. 

II         Sir  E.,  292. 
Pragnell,  John,  Mayor  of  Folkestone,  212,  213. 
Prince,  the  Black.     See  Black  Prince. 
Prussia,  King  of  (at  Dover),  277. 
Ptolemy,  130,  244. 
Puckle,  Canon,  291. 

Raleigh,  Sir  W.,  'A  Discourse  of  Sea  Ports,'  34, 

271. 
Rameslie,  manor  of,  27. 
Ramsay,    Sir     J.,    '  Foundations    of    England,' 

25- 
Ramsgate,  334,  343-348, 366, 367. 
Reculvers,  the,  124,  ^oj,  361-364. 
'  Red  Book  of  the  Exchequer,'  143. 
Regulbium.     See  Reculvers. 
Rhee  Wall,  the,  133. 
Richard  L,  30,  66,  gs,  319. 

II        II.,  4,  IS,  268. 

II        III.,  139,  202. 
Richard  of  Cirencester,  '  Chronicle,'  308. 
Richborough,  307  et  seqq.,  349,  356, 337. 
Ridley,  Bishop,  361. 
River,  297. 

Robert  de  Rumeny,  137. 
Robertson's  '  Materials  for  Life  of  St  Thomas,' 

319- 
Rochelle,  La,  battle  of  (1371),  15. 
Rochester,  261. 

II  Bishop  of,  280. 

II  Hamo,  Bishop  of,  199. 

Rokeby,  Lord,  239,  240. 


Romney,  67, 123-1S4,  191,  194,  198,  204,  252,  307, 

310. 
Romney,  Old,  /jp,  160. 
Rossetti,  D.  G.,  79,  365. 
'  Rot.  Pat.,'  72. 
'  Rot.  Vase.,'  387. 

Rother  river,  67,  103,  125,  128,  132-135. 
Rosamond's  Bower,  240,  241. 
Round,  J.  H.,  25. 

11  II     *  Feudal  England,' 27,  93,  378,  380. 

II  II     '  Introduction    of    Knight    Service,' 

377- 
II  II     '  Commune  of  London,' 259,  377. 

Ruckinge,  171. 

Rutupian  Ports,  243,  245,  307  et  seqq.,  373,  374. 
Rye,  8,  14,  31,  34,  35,  66,  67,  69,  71  et  seqq.,  g2-j32, 

152,  167,  198,  261. 
Rymer's  '  Foedera,'  322,  323. 

Sackville  Letters,  279. 

11  Lord  George,  279. 

St  John's,  village  of,  363. 
St  Laurence's,  village  of,  366. 
St  Peter's,  365. 

Salisbury,  Marquis  of  (Lord  Warden),  291,  371. 
Saltwood,  191,  202,  221. 

II  Castle,  187,  189,  192-195,  221. 

Sandgate,  186,  191-195,  205,  206,  224,  225. 

11  Castle,  205-207,  225,  226,  328. 

Sandling,  185,  i86. 
Sandown,  205,  328,  334-339,  368. 
Sandwich,   5,  9,  24,  97,   137,   147,  303-372-,  ITi, 

374- 
Sarre,  310  et  seqq.,  318,  328, 337, 338. 
Saxon  Shore,  Counts  of,  373,  374. 
"Saxony,  South,"  134. 
Schomberg,  Isaac,  39. 
Scott,  Sir  Gilbert,  43,  288,  355. 
Seabrook,  205. 

Seaford,  32-39,5^-5^,  132,  I37,  205. 
Severus,  Emperor,  244,  246.  , 

Seymour,  '  Survey  of  Kent,'  198. 
Shakespeare,  William,  6,  212,  261,  285,  289,  290, 

295. 
Shepway,  130. 

11         courts  of,  4,  130,  241,  290,  378. 
Ships,  comparisons  of  contributions  of  individual 

ports,  s,  8,  9,  15,  27,  66,  69,  loi,  143,  192,  193, 

256,  257,  268,  272,  281,  320-323,  333,  370. 
Ships,  descriptions  of,  8,  15,  16,  18,  19,  29. 

II       names  of — 
Anne,  104. 
Benvenue,  225. 


402 


THE   CINQUE  PORTS. 


Ships,  names  of,  continued — 

Esnetka  mea  de  Hastings  (Henry  I.),  29. 

Gabrielle  de  Winchelsey,  71. 

Hercules,  333,  334. 

Jason,  277.1 

John  of  Downwithe,  206. 

La  Blithe  de  Winchelse,  371. 

La  Littel  Douce  de  Saundwic,  371. 

Northfleet,  164. 

Royal  Sovereign,  338. 

St  Nycolas  of  Sowolde,  206. 

Salle  du  Roi,  14. 

The  Victory,  370,  371. 
Shorncliflfe  Camp,  152,  32'j-32g. 
Shovel,  Sir  Cloudesley,  43. 
Sibertswold,  299. 
Sluys,  19,  197,  274. 

II      battle  of,  9,  193. 
Smeaton,  '  On  Dover  Harbour,'  276. 

II         '  On  Ramsgate  Harbour,' 367. 
Smith,  C.  Roach,  127. 

II  n         '  Collectanea  Antiqua,' 23. 

II  11         'Excavations,'  51,  130,  308. 

II  II         '  Retrospections,'  364. 

Smith,  Mr  W.  H.  (Lord  Warden),  371. 
Smugglers,  I45-I49i  I74-I76. 

M  Nest,  216. 

Somners,  'On  the  Law  of  Gavelkind,'  136,  187. 
Southampton,  8. 
Southwold,  206. 

Spot,  Thomas,  '  Chronicle,'  254. 
Stanhope,  Lady  Hester,  16,  370. 

II  '  Miscellanies,'  370. 

Staninges,  63,  92. 
Staplegate  family,  149. 
Statham's  '  History  of  Dover,'  246,  249. 
Stelling  Minnis,  238. 
Stephen,  King,  30,  95,  114,  260. 
Steynings,  manor  of,  93. 
Stone  Street,  130,  155,  238,  239. 
Stonor,  309  et  segq.,  317-324,  J^?- 
Stour,  river  (lesser),  128,  240. 
Stow's  'Chronicle,'  96,  97,  114. 
Stukely,  187,  275. 
Stutfall  Castle,  130. 
Swanscombe,  253,  254. 
Swein,  24. 
Swinden,  'History  of  Yarmouth,'  321. 

Tacitus,  307. 
Tappington  Hall,  237. 
Tenterden,  16,  99,  334. 
Tewkesbury,  battle  of,  327. 


Thackeray,  W.  M.,  84,  120. 

M        M        M      Denis  Duval,  120. 
Thanet,  Isle  of,  300,  307  et  segq.,  3^3>  3S9-J^7- 
Theodosius  the  Elder,  308. 
Thomas  of  Canterbury,  St,  138,  139,  192,  201,  302, 

318,319- 
Thomas  of  Walsingham,  'Chronicle,'  70. 
Thome,  William,  'Chronicle,'  254,  255,  310,  312, 

313,  317,  318. 
Thwaites,  Edward,  'Account  of  Maid  of  Kent,' 

150-152. 
Tillingham  river,  133. 
'  Tinemutensis  Chronicle,'  325. 
Torrington,  Lord,  35. 
Tostig,  316. 
Trinity  House,  258,  270. 

II  II       Cinque  Ports,  266,  270. 

II  II       Dover,  258,  270. 

Turbeville,  Thomas  de,  193,  194. 
Turnacensian  Legion,  the,  130. 
Twysden's  'Script.  X.,'  8,  193,  194,  267,  317,  318. 

Udimore,  Sp. 
Urban,  Sylvanus,  365. 
Urien,  125. 

Van  de  Welde,  William,  341. 

Van  Tromp,  337,  338. 

Vauban  system,  the,  152,  153,  170,  171. 

Venables,  '  Hurstmonceaux,'  55. 

Vespasian,  245. 

Vetasia  Cohors,  308. 

Vicat's  '  Work  on  Cements,'  246. 

Victoria,  Queen,  32,  195,  371. 

'  Villare  Cantium.'     See  Philipot. 

Vine,  Francis,  126. 

Vitruvius,  187,  246. 

Vortimer,  187. 

Wace,  '  Chronicle'  of,  25. 
Waldershare,  299. 
Walkelin,  260. 
Wallend  Marsh,  167. 
Walmer,  1 27,  306,  307,  jdg-j/i. 

II        Castle,  328,  370,  371. 
Walpole,  Horace,  56. 
Walsingham,  Thomas  of.     See  Thomas. 
Wantsum  river,  307  et  seqq.,  364. 
Warbeck,  Perkin,  327,  342. 
Warwick,  Earl  of,  18,  269,  326. 
Watling  Street,  245,  299. 

Wellington,  Duke  of  (Lord  Warden),  38,  106,  152, 
370,  371- 


INDEX. 


403 


Wesley,  John,  '  Diary,'  82. 
Westcliffe,  298. 
Westons,  the,  84. 
Westenhanger,  240,  241. 
West  Dean,  52. 
Wickliffe,  194. 
Wight,  Isle  of,  34. 
Wihtraed  I.,  i8g. 
M         II.,  248. 
William  I.,  2,  4,  24-30,  57,  58,  93,  94,  136,  137,  191, 

252-260,  301,^75,  376,  377- 
William  II.,  4,  29,  58,  260,  377. 
n        III.,  275,  282,  283,^^5. 
William  of  Malmesbury,  '  Chronicle,'  250. 
II       ri  Poictiers,  'Chronicle,'  252,  253. 
Winchelsea,  7,  15,  27,  30-38,  48,  6i-gi,  92  et  segq., 

138,  140,  147,  191,  257,  266,  327. 


Winchelsea,  Earl  of,  274. 
Wippedsfleet,  battle  of,  187. 
Wissant  (Witsand),  257. 
Wolsey,  Cardinal,  166. 
Woodstock,  Edmund  of,  268. 
"Worster's,  Lord,  players,"  212. 
Wye,  i6i. 

Yarmouth,  4,  67,  92,  373,  374,  380,  382. 

York,  Duke  of.     See  James  II. 

Young,  Arthur,  'Agriculture  of  Sussex,'  loi,  113. 

Ypres,  de,  family,  280. 

II       William  de,  95,  280. 

II      John  de,  114. 

'  Zee-Praatjen  over  de  Scheepsstryd,'  &c.  (1652), 
338. 


THE    END. 


PRINTED   BY   WILLIAM    BLACKWOOD   AND   SONS.